



i'S.iEl'^ 



AIDS TO REFLECTION, 



FORMATION OF A MANLY CHARACTER, 

ON THE SEVERAL GROUNDS OF 

PRUDENCE, MORALITY, AND RELIGION: 

ILLUSTRATED BY 

SELECT PASSAGES FROM OUR ELPER DIVINES, ESPECIALLY 
FROM ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. 



BY SfT. COLERIDGE. 

FIRST AMERICAN, FROM THE FIRST LONDON EDITION ; 

WITH AN APPENDIX, AND ILLUSTRATIONS FROM OTHER WORKS OF THE SAME 

AUTHOR ; TOGETHER WITH A 

PRELIMINARY ESSAY, AND ADDITIONAL NOTES, 



BY JAMES ^ARSH, < 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVBilSITT OF VERMONT. 



BURLINGTON: 

CHAUNCEY GOODRICH. 



MDCCCXXIX. 



>^^ 
^•f^^ 

"^^^^> 



DISTRICT OF VERMONT, TO WIT: 

"M^^^^ BE it remembered, that on the twenty-seventh day of Oc- 
^]^a^ W ^®^^^^» "^ ^^® fifty-fourth year of the Independence of the 
ffi^^^J^ United States of America, Chauncey Goodrich, of the 
*^*^"^^^said District, hath deposited in this office, the title of a book, 
the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit : 

" Jlids to Refteciiorif in the formation oj a manly character^ on the several 
grounds of prudence, morality, and Religion ; illustrated by select passages 
from the elder Divines, especially from Archbishop Leighton. By S. T. Cole- 
ridge. First American, from the first London edition ; loith an Appendix and 
Illustrations from other Works of the same Author ; together with a Prelimina- 
ry Essay, and Additional Notes. By James Marsh, President of the Uni- 
versity of Vermont.^ 

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled 
" An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of 
Maps, Charts, and Books,, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, 
during the times therein mentioned." 

JESSE GOVE, 
Clerk of the District of Verinont. 

A true Copy of Record. Examined and sealed by me. 

J.GOVE, aerk. 



Chauncey Goodrich, Printer, Burlington, Vt. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE. 

Advertisement by the American Editor v 

Preliminary Essay vii 

Advertisement by the Author Iv 

Preface Ivii 

Introductory Aphorisms 1 

Prudential Aphorisms . 17 

Reflections respecting Morality 31 

Moral and Religious Aphorisms ...... 37 

Elements of Religious Philosophy, preliminary to the Apho- 
risms on Spiritual Religion 85 

Aphorisms on Spiritual Religion . ^ .... 95 

Aphorisms on that which is indeed Spiritual Religion . . 103 

Notes 251 

Appendix . . ' 343 



TuvTu h NOMOGETH^ Nor:^ dia6iniio&eTii raig \p}>xaig. h Si v:rodii- 
a^iEiog avra Jori2 MO^ , di>cagtjg ayponvog lavrov yirirui, TTrj 7i«o»,?>;r ; n 
S'tQt^ix ; xai tr rcx^ti T»;r urvjir,v ava?Mii iSavojv ap«T»;c irsxa uraivQon' [avxor avy- 
<pwvu>g Toig nQoy.tiutvoig oooig dniftiqevaavTa, rt\g -^tiag tv(fQoat/i-t]g roig xapnoig 
avudet. nuoa utXog ds rt Trnucavra (fwQuaag vMnio riai (fuouaxoig raig tx rr,g 
fitravotag vov6trr]asan' tnigvcptt. 

Hierocles, as quoted by Renatus FaUinns in notes on Boethius. 

Neque esse mens divina sine ratione potest, nee ratio divina non hanc 
viin in rectis pravisque sanciendis habere. ^^ Erat enim ratio profecta a 
rerum natura, et ad recte faciendum impellens, et a delicto avocans ; quae 
non turn denique incipit lex esse, cum scripta est, sed turn cum orta est. 
Orta autem simul est cum mente divina. 

Cicero de LegihuSy Lib. ii. c. 4. 

Hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon earth, and with la- 
bour do we find the things that are at hand ; but the things that are in 
heaven who hath searched out ? And thy counsel who hath known, 
except thou give wisdom, and send thy holy spirit fi'ora above ? 
For so the ways of them which hved on the earth were reformed, and 
men were taught the things that are pleasing unto thee, and were saved 
through wisdom. Wisdom of Solomon, ix. 16, 17. 18, 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



In republishing the « Aids to Reflection," I have aimed to adapt it, as 
far as possible, to the circumstances, in which it will be placed, and to the 
wishes of those readers who will bo most likely to seek instruction from 
the work. As the philosophical views of the author, and what are con- 
sidered his pecuharities of thought and language, are less known, and his 
other writings less accessible here, than in the community for which he 
wi'ote, I supposed it might increase the usefulness of an edition for the 
American public to connect with it such extracts from his other works, as 
would serve to explain his language, and render more intelhgible the es- 
sential principles of his system. Passages selected for this purpose will 
be found attached to many of the author's notes, as well as to other notes 
which have been added. These constitute the principal addition to this 
part of the volume, though a few - extracts are inserted in note 59 from 
Henry More's Philosophical Works. I have thrown in occasional re- 
marks of my own, and in a few instances have hazarded my thoughts 
more at large. Notes merely explanatory could not be multiplied without 
compromising my respect for the understanding either of the author or of 
the reader. I am persuaded, moreover, that if parts of the work are found 
difficult to understand, a little reflection will show the difficulty to be in- 
herent in the subject, and such as could not be removed by multiplying il- 
lustrations. No language and no illustration can help the reader to under- 
stand himself without the labour of serious and persevering reflection. I 
have endeavoured to furnish, however, that sort of help, which I thought 
would be most effectual with regard to the views of the author, by giving 
references, in the notes on important topics, to all the parts of the work, 
where the same topic is treated of. The notes for obvious reasons are 
thrown together after the text of the work, and the additions which have 
been made in this edition are so designated, as to distinguish them from 
the original notes of the author. An Appendix is added consisting of 
matter which it was thought would serve the same purpose of illustration 
with the notes, and otherwise increase the usefulness of the volume. 

The Preliminary Essay, which I have prefixed, must be allowed for the 
most part to speak for itself. The views which it exhibits will be found, I 
believe, as far as they go, nearly coincident with the system of the author, 
as my chief purpose in writing it has been to draw attention to the au- 



VI AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

tlior's work. I have aimed especially, botli in this and in the notes, to 
awaken the mhids of thinking men to certain great^nd all-important dis- 
tinctions of a philosophical nature, which the author has exhibited, as it 
seems to me with convincing clearness, both in this and in his other works, 
I might perhaps have left others to make tlie application of the doctrines 
taught in the work to the opinions and discussions now prevailing among 
ourselves, had I not believed the apphcation would be more likely than 
any thing else to arouse attention to the doctrines themselves. If in ma-, 
king it I shall be thought to have spoken too freely, I hope at least to have 
the credit of honest intentions, and of being uninfluenced by aiiy con- 
siderations of a personal nature. 

For the manner in which the text of the work was made up the rea- 
der must of course be referred to the author's advertisement. I have 
mentioned it for the purpose of adding, that however disconnected and 
miscellaneous it may at first appear, it will be found on perusal to con- 
tain a connected train of discussions, and to be strictly methodical 
in its an-angement. I cannot but add a request, that the author's pre- 
face may receive a far more attentive perusal, than prefaces are generally 
favoured with. The whole work will be found partly philosophical and 
partly rehgious, or rather both combined in one, and that upon a princi- 
ple and in a maimer, I trust, which botli reason aud rehgion will approve. 
"Naturam hominis banc Deus ipse voluit,' ut duarum reinim cupidus 
et appetens esset — religionis et sapientise. Sed homines ideo falluntur, 
quod aut rehgionem suscipiunt omissa sapientia ; aut sapientise soli stu- 
dent omissa religione, cum alterum sine altero esse non possit verum." 
Lactantius de Falsa Sapientia, Lib. III. B. 11. 

The whole is committed to tlie candour of the Christian public with 
the hope and prayer, that it may promote among us the interests, which 
cannot be long separated from each other, of sound philosophy and of 
true rehgion. 

JAMES MARSH. 

University of Fcrmontf JVov. IGth, 1829. 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY 



Whether the present state of religious feeling, and the 
prevailing topics of theological enquiry among us, are particu- 
larly favourable to the success of the work herewith offered to 
the public, can be determined only by the result. The ques- 
tion, however, has not been left unconsidered ; and however 
that may be, it is not a work, whose value depends essentially 
upon its relation to the passing controversies of the day. Un- 
less I distrust my own feelings and convictions altogether, I 
must suppose, that for some, I hope for many, minds, it will 
have a deep and enduring interest. Of those classes, for 
whose use it is more especially designated in the author's 
preface, I trust there are many also in this country, who will 
justly appreciate the objects at which it aims, and avail them- 
selves of its instruction and assistance. I could wish it might 
be received, by all who concern themselves in religious inqui- 
ries and instruction especially, in the spirit, which seems to 
me to have animated its great and admirable author ; and I 
hesitate not to say, that to all of every class, who shall so re- 
ceive it, and peruse it with the attention and thoughtfulness, 
which it demands and deserves, it will be found by experi- 
ence to furnish what its title imports, " Aids to Reflection" 
on subjects, upon which every man is bound to reflect deeply 
and in earnest. 

What the specific objects of the work are, and for whom it 
is written, may be learned in few words from the preface of 
the author. From this too, it will be seen to be professedly 
didactic. It is designed to aid those, who v/ish for instruction, 
or assistance in the instruction of others. The plan and com- 



Vlll AIDS TC REFLECTION. 

position of the work will to most readers probably appear 
somewhat anomalous; but reflection upon the nature of the 
objects aimed at, and some little experience of its results, may 
convince them, that the method adopted is not without its ad- 
vantages. It is important to observe, that it is designed, as its 
general characteristic, to aid reflection, and for the most 
part upon subjects, which can be learned and understood only 
bj the exercise of reflection in the strict and proper sense of 
that term. It was not so much to teach a speculative system 
of doctrines built upon established premises, for which a dif- 
ferent method would have been obviously preferable, as to 
turn the mind continually back upon the premises themselves — 
upon the inherent grounds of truth and error in its own being. 
The only way, in which it is possible for any one to learn the 
science of words, which is one of the objects to be sought in 
the present work, and the true import of those words espe- 
cially, which most concern us as rational and accountable be- 
ings, is by reflecting upon, and bringing forth into distinct con- 
sciousness, those mental acts, which the words are intended 
to designate. We must discover and distinctly apprehend 
different meanings, before we can appropriate to each a several 
word, or understand the words so appropriated by others. Now 
it is not too much to say, that most men, and even a large 
proportion of educated men, do not reflect sufficiently upon 
their own inward being, upon the constituent laws of their 
own understanding, upon the mysterious powers and agencies 
of reason,' and conscience, and will, to apprehend with much 
distinctness the objects to be named, or of course to refer the 
names with correctness to their several objects. Hence the 
necessity of associating the study of words with the study of 
morals and religion ; and that is the most effectual method of 
instruction, which enables the teachei most especially to fix 
the attention upon a definite meaning, that is, in these studies, 
upon a particular act, or process, or law of the mind — to call it 
into distinct consciousness, and assign to it its proper name, so 
that the name shall thenceforth have for the learner a distinct, 
definite, and intelligible sense. To impress upon the reader 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. *^ 



the importance of this, and to exemplify it in the particular 
subjects taken up in the work, is a leading aim of the author 
throughout; and it is obviously the only possible way by which 
we can arrive at any satisfactory and conclusive results on sub- 
jects of philosophy, morals, and rehgion. The first principles, 
the ultimate grounds of these, so far as they are possible objects 
of knowledge for us, must be sought and found in the laws of 
our being, or they are not found at all. The knowledge of 
these terminates in the knowledge of ourselves, of our ration- 
al and personal being, of our proper and distinctive humanity, 
and of that Divine Being, in whose image we are created. 
"We must retire inwaid,'^ says St. Bernard, "if we would as- 
cend upward.'' It is by self-inspection, by reflecting upon the 
mysterious grounds of our own being, alone, that we can ar- 
rive at any rational knowledge of the central and absolute 
ground of all being. It is by this only, that we can discover 
that principle of unity and consistency, which reason instinct- 
ively seeks after, which shall reduce to a harmonious system all 
our views of truth and of being, and destitute of which all the 
knowledge, that comes to us from without, is fragmentary, and 
in its relation to our highest interests as rational beings, but 
the patch- work of vanity. 

Now, of necessity, the only method, by which another can 
aid our efforts in the work of reflection, is by first reflecting 
himself, and so pointing out the process and marking the re- 
sult by words, that we can repeat it, and try the conclusions 
by our own consciousness. If he have reflected aright, if he 
have excluded all causes of self-deception, and directed his 
thoughts by those principles of truth and reason, and by those 
laws of the understanding, which belong in common to all 
men, his conclusions must be true for all. We have only to 
repeat the process, impartially to reflect ourselves, unbiassed by 
received opinions, and undeceived by the idols of our own 
understandings, and we shall find the same tiuths in the depths 
of our own self-consciousness. I am persuaded that such for 
the most part, will be found to be the case with regard to the 
principles developed in the present work, and that those, who. 



X AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

with serious reflection and an unbiassed love of truth, will re- 
fer them to the laws of thought in their own minds, to the re- 
quirements of their own reason, will find there a witness to 
their truth. 

Viewing the work in this manner, therefore, as an instruc- 
tive and safe guide to the knowledge of what it concerns all 
men to know, I cannot but consider it in itself, as a work of 
great and permanent value to any christian community. What- 
ever indeed tends to awaken and cherish the power, and to 
form the habit, of reflection upon the great constituent piin- 
ciples of our own permanent being and proper humanity, and 
upon the abiding laws of truth and duty, as revealed in our 
reason and conscience, cannot but promote our highest inter- 
ests as moral and rational beings. Even if the particular con- 
clusions, to which the author has arrived, should prove erro- 
neous, the evil is comparatively of little importance, if he 
have at the same time communicated to our minds such pow- 
ers of thought, as will enable us to detect his errors, and attain 
by our own efforts to a more perfect knowledge of the truth. 

fThat some of his views may not be erroneous, or that they 
are to be received on his authority, the author, I presume, 
would be the last to affirm ; and although in the nature of the 
case it was impossible for him to aid reflection without antici- 
pating and in some measure influencing the results, yet the 
primary tendency and design of the work is, not to establish 
this or that system, but to cultivate in every mind the power 
and the will to seek earnestly and steadfastly for the truth in 
the only direction, in which it can ever be found. The work 
is no farther controversial, than every work must be, " that 
is writ with freedom and reason" upon subjects of the same 
kind ; and if it be found at variance with existing opinions and 
modes of philosophizing, it is not necessarily to be considered 
the fault of the writer. 

In republishing the work in this country, I could wish that 
it might be received by all, for whose instruction it was de- 
signed, simply as a didactic work, on its own merits, and with- 
out controversy. I must not, however, be supposed ignorant 



PRELIMINART ESSAY. ^* 

of its bearing upon those questions, which have so often been, 
and still are, the prevailing topics of theological controversy 
among us. It was indeed incumbent on me, before inviting 
the attention of the religious community to the work, to con- 
sider its relation to existing opinions, and its probable influence 
on the progress of truth. This I have done with as severe 
thought as I am capable of bestowing upon any subject, and I 
trust too with no want of deference and conscientious regard 
to the feelings and opinions of others. I have not attempted 
to disguise from myself, nor do I wish to disguise from the 
readers of the work, the inconsistency of some of its leading 
principles with much that is taught and received in our theo- 
logical circles. Should it gain much of the public attention in 
any way, it will become, as it ought to do, an object of special 
and deep interest to all, who would contend for the truth, and 
labour to establish it upon a permanent basis. I venture to 
assure such, even those of them who are most capable of 
comprehending the philosophical grounds of truth in our spec- 
ulative systems of theology, that in its relation to this whole 
subject they will find it to be a work of great depth and pow- 
er, and whether right or wrong, eminently deserving of their 
attention. It is not to be supposed, that all who read, or 
even all who comprehend it, will be convinced of the sound- 
ness of its views, or be prepared to abandon those, which they 
have long considered essential to the truth. To those, whose 
understandings by long habit have become hmited in their 
powers of apprehension, and as it were identified with certain 
schemes of doctrine, certain modes of contemplating all that 
pertains to religious truth, it may appear novel, strange, and 
unintelligible, or even dangerous in its tendency, and be to 
them an occasion of off'ence. But I have no fear, that any 
earnest and single-hearted lover of the truth as it is in Jesus, 
who will free his mind from the idols of preconceived opinion, 
and give himself time and opportunity to understand the work 
by such reflection as the nature of the subject renders una- 
voidable, will find in it any cause of off'ence, or any source of 
alarm. If the work become the occasion of controversy at all, 



Xll AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

I should expect it from those, who, instead of reflecting deep- 
ly upon the first principles of truth in their own reason and 
conscience and in the word of God, are more accustomed to 
speculate — that is, from premises given or assumed, but consid- 
ered unquestionable, as the constituted point of observation, 
to look abroad upon the whole field of their intellectual vis- 
ions, and thence to decide upon the true form and dimensions 
of all which meets their view. To such I would say with de- 
ference, that the merits of this work cannot be determined by 
the merely relative aspect of its doctrines, as seen from the 
high ground of any prevailing metaphysical or theological sys- 
tem. Those on the contrary who will seek to comprehend it 
by reflection, to learn the true meaning of the whole and of 
all its parts, by retiring into their own minds and finding there 
the true point of observation for each, will not be in haste to 
question the truth or the tendency of its principles. I make 
these remarks, because I am anxious, as far as may be, to an- 
ticipate the causeless fears of all, who earnestly pray and la- 
bour for the promotion of the truth, and to preclude that un- 
profitable controversy, that might arise from hasty or prejudi- 
ced views of a work like this. At the same time I should be 
far from deprecating any discussion, which might tend to un- 
fold more fully the principles, which it teaches, or to exhibit 
more distinctly its true bearing upon the interests of theolo- 
gical science and of spiritual religion. It is to promote this 
object, indeed, that I am induced in the remarks which follow 
to offer some of my own thoughts on these subjects, imperfect 
I am well aware, and such as, for that reason, as well as others, 
worldly prudence might require me to suppress. If, how^ever, 
I may induce reflecting men, and those who are engaged in 
theological enquiries especially, to indulge a suspicion, that all 
truth, which it is important for them to know", is not contained 
in the systems of doctrine usually taught, and that this work 
may he worthy of their serious and reflecting perusal, my chief 
object will be accomplished. I shall of course not need to an- 
ticipate in detail the contents of the work itself, but shall aim 
simply to point out what I consider its distinguishing and es- 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. XIU 

sential character and tendency, and then direct the attention 
of ray readers to some of those general feelings and views on 
the subject of religious truth, and of those particulars in the 
prevailing philosophy of the age, which seem to me to be ex- 
erting an injurious influence on the cause of theological sci- 
ence and of spiritual religion, and not only to furnish a fit oc- 
casion, but to create an imperious demand, for a work like that 
which is here offered to the public. 

In regard then to the distinguishing character and tendency 
of the work itself, it has already been stated to be didactic, 
and designed to aid reflection on the principles and grounds 
of truth in our own being; but, in another point of view, and 
with reference to my present object, it might rather be denom- 
inated A PHILOSOPHICAL STATEMENT AND VINDICATION OF THE 
DISTINCTIVELY SPIRITUAL AND PECULIAR DOCTRINES OF THE 

CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. In Order to understand more clearly the 
import of this statement and the relation of the author's views 
to those exhibited in other systems, the reader is requested 
to examine in the first place, what he considers the peculiar 
doctrines of Christianity^ and what he means by the terms 
spirit and spiritual. A synoptical view of what he considers 
peculiar to Christianity as a revelation is given on pp. 127 — 
128, and, if I mistake not, will be found essentially to co- 
incide, though not perhaps in the language employed, with 
what among us are termed the evangelical doctrines of reli- 
gion. Those who are anxious to examine farther into the 
orthodoxy of the work in connexion with this statement, may 
consult the articles on original sin and redemption beginning 
at pp. 159 and 187, though I must forewarn them, that it will 
require much study in connexion with the other parts of the 
work, before one unaccustomed to the author's language and 
unacquainted with his views, can fully appreciate the merit of 
what may be peculiar in his mode of treating those subjects. 
With regard to the term spiritual^ it may be sufficient to re- 
mark here, that he regards it as having a specific import, and 
maintains that in the sense of the N. T. spiritual and natural 
are contradistinguished, so that what is spiritual is different 



XIV AIDS TO REFLECTIOlf. 

in kind from that which is natural, and is in fact super 'Xiaimai. 
So, too, while morality is something more than prudence, re- 
ligion, the spiritual life, is something more than morality. 
For his views at large, the reader may recur to note 29, and 
the references there made. 

In vindicating the peculiar doctrines of the christian system 
so stated, and a faith in the reality of agencies and modes of 
being essentially spiritual or supernatural, he aims to show 
their consistency with reason and with the true principles of 
philosophy, and that indeed, so far from being irrational, chris- 
tian FAITH IS THE PERFECTION OF HUMAN REASON. By re- 
flection upon the subjective grounds of knowledge and faith 
in the human mind itself, and by an analysis of its faculties, 
he developes the distinguishing characteristics and necessary 
relations of the natural and the spiritual in our modes of being 
and knowing, and the all-important fact, that although the for- 
mer does not comprehend the latter, yet neither does it pre- 
clude its existence. He proves, that " the scheme of Chris- 
tianity, though not discoverable by reason, is yet in accordance 
with it — that link follows link by necessary consequence — that 
religion passes out of the ken of reason only where the eye 
of reason has reached its own horizon — and that faith is then 
but its continuation." Instead of adopting, like the popular 
metaphysicians of the day, a system of philosophy at war with 
religion, and which tends inevitably to undermine our belief 
in the reality of any thing spiritual in the only proper sense 
of that word, and then coldly and ambiguously referring us 
for the support of our faith to the authority of revelation, he 
boldly asserts the reality of something distinctively spiritual in 
man, and the futility of all those modes of philosophizing, in 
which this is not recognized, or which are incompatible with 
it. He considers it the highest and most rational purpose of 
any system of philosophy, at least of one professing to be 
christian, to investigate those higher and peculiar attributes, 
which distinguish us from the brutes that perish — which are the 
image of God in us, and constitute our proper humanity. It 
is in his view the proper business and the duty of the Chris- 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. XV 

tian philosopher to remove all appearance of contradiction be- 
tween the several manifestations of the one Divine Word, to 
reconcile reason with revelation, and thus to justify the ways 
of God to man. The methods by which he accomplishes this, 
either in regard to the terms in which he enunciates the great 
doctrines of the gospel, or the peculiar views of philosophy, 
by which he reconciles them with the subjective grounds of 
faith in the universal reason of man, need not be stated here. 
I will merely observe, that the key to his system will be found 
in the distinctions, which he makes and illustrates between 
nature and free-will, and between the understanding and rea- 
son. For the first of these distinctions the reader may con- 
sult note 29, and for the other, pp. 135—154, and note 59. It 
may meet the prejudices of some to remark farther, that in 
philosophizing on the grounds of our faith he does not profess 
or aim to solve all mysteries, and to bring all truth within 
the comprehension of the understanding. A truth may be 
mysterious, and the primary ground of all truth and reality 
must be so. But though we may believe what " passeth all 
understanding,^^ we cannot believe what is absurd, or contra- 
dictory to reason. 

Whether the work be well executed, according to the idea 
of it, as now given, or whether the author have accomplished 
his purpose, must be determined by those who aie capable of 
judging, when they shall have examined and reflected upon 
the whole as it deserves. The inquiry which I have now to 
propose to my readers is, whether the idea itself be a rational 
one, and whether the purpose of the author be one, which a 
wise man and a christian ought to aim at, or which in the pre- 
sent state of our religious interests, and of our theological sci- 
ence specially needs to be accomplished. 

No one, who has had occasion to observe the general feel- 
ings and views of our religious community for a few years 
past, can be ignorant, that a strong prejudice exists against 
the introduction of philosophy, in any form, in the discussion of 
theological subjects. The terms philosophy and metaphysics, 
even reaswi and rational seem, in the minds of those most de- 



XVI AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

voted to the support of religious truth, to have forfeited their 
original, and to have acquired a new, import, especially in their 
relation to matters of faith. By a philosophical view of reli- 
gious truth would generally be understood, a view, not only 
varying from the religion of the bible in the form and manner 
of presenting it, but at war with it ; and a rational religion is 
supposed to be of course something diverse from revealed re- 
ligion. A philosophical and rational system of religious truth 
would by most readers among us, if I mistake not, be suppo- 
sed a system deriving its doctrines not from revelation, but 
from the speculative reason of men, or at least relying on that 
only for their credibility. That these terms have been used 
to designate such systems, and that the prejudice against rea- 
son and philosophy so employed, is not, therefore, without 
cause, I need not deny ; nor would any friend of revealed 
truth be less disposed to give credence to such systems, than 
the author of the work before us. 

But, on the other hand, a moment's reflection only can be 
necessary to convince any man, attentive to the use of lan^ 
guage, that we do at the same time employ these terms in re- 
lation to truth generally in a better and much higher sense. 
Rational, as contradistinguished from irrational and absurd, 
certainly denotes a quality, which every man would be dispo- 
sed to claim, not only for himself, but for his religious opin- 
ions. Now, the adjective reasonable, having acquired a dif- 
ferent use and signification, the word rational is the adjective 
corresponding in sense to the substantive 7'eason, and signifies 
what is conformed to reason. In one sense, then, all men 
would appeal to reason, in behalf of their religious faith : they 
would deny that it was irrational or absurd. If we do not in 
this sense adhere to reason, we forfeit our prerogative as ra-> 
tional beings, and our faith is n© better than the bewildered 
dream of a man who has lost his reason. Nay, I maintain 
that when we use the term in this higher sense, it is impossible 
for us to believe on any authority what is directly contradic- 
tory to reason and seen to be so. No evidence from another 
source, and no authority eould convince us, that a proposition 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. XVU 

in Geometry, for example, is false, which our reason intuitive- 
ly discovers to be true. Now supposing, (and we may at 
least suppose this,) that reason has the same power of intui- 
tive insight in relation to certain moral and spiritual truths, as 
in relation to the truths of Geometry, then it will be equally 
impossible to divest us of our belief of those truths. 

Furthermore, we are not only unable to believe the same 
proposition to be false, which our reason sees to be true, but 
we cannot believe another propositioriy which by the exercise 
of the same rational faculty we see to be incompatible with 
the former, or to contradict it. We may, and probably often 
do, receive with a certain kind and degree of credence opin- 
ions, which reflection would show to be incompatible. But 
when we have reflected, and discovered the inconsistency, we 
cannot retain both. We cannot believe two contradictory 
propositions knowing them to be such. It would be irration- 
al to do so. 

Again, we cannot conceive it possible, that what by the 
same power of intuition we see to be universally and neces- 
sarily true should appear otherwise to any other rational 
being. We cannot, for example, but consider the propo- 
sitions of Geometry, as necessarily true, for all rational be- 
ings. So, too, a little reflection, I think, will convince any 
one, that we attribute the same necessity of reason to the 
principles of moral rectitude. What in the clear day-light of 
our reason, and after mature reflection, w^e see to be right, we 
cannot believe to be wrong in the view of other rational be- 
ings in the distinct exercise of their Reason. Nay, in regard 
to those truths, which are clearly submitted to the view of 
our reason, and which we behold with distinct and steadfast 
intuitions, we necessarily attribute to the Supreme Reason, to 
the Divine Mind, views the same, or coincident, with those 
of our own reason. We cannot, (I say it with reverence and 
I trust with some apprehension of the importance of the asser- 
tion ) we cannot believe that to be right in the view of the su- 
preme reason which is clearly and decidedly wrong in the view 
of our own. It would be contradictory to reason, it would be ir- 



XV^Ul AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

rational to believe it, and therefore we cannot do so, till we 
lose our reason, or cease to exercise it. 

I would ask now, whether this be not an authorized use 
of the words reason and rational, and whether so used they do 
not mean something. If it be so — and I appeal to the mind cf 
every man capable of reflection, and of understanding the use 
of language, if it be not^then there is meaning in the terms 
universal reason^ and unity of reason, as used in this work. 
There is, and can be, in this highest sense of the word, but 
one reason, and whatever contradicts that reason, being seen 
to do so, cannot be received as matter either of knowledge or 
faith. To reconcile religion with reason used in this sense, 
therefore, and to justify the ways of God to man, or in the 
view of reason, is so far from being irrational, that reason im- 
peratively demands it of us. We cannot, as rational beings, 
believe a proposition on the grounds of reason, and deny it 
on the authority of revelation. We cannot believe a proposi- 
tion in philosophy, and deny the same proposition in theology ; 
nor can we believe two incompatible propositions on the dif- 
ferent grounds of reason and revelation. So fast, and so far, 
as we compare our thoughts, the objects of our knowledge and 
faith, and by reflection refer them to their common measure in 
the universal laws of reason, so far the instinct of reason im- 
pels us to reject whatever is contradictory and absurd, and to 
bring unity and consistency into all our views of truth. Thus, 
in the language of the author of this work, (p. 6,) though " the 
word rational has been strangely abused of late times, this 
must not disincline us to the weighty consideration, that 
thoughtfulness, and a desire to rest all our convictions on 
grounds of right reason, are inseparable from the character of 
a Christian." 

But I beg the reader to observe, that in relation to the doc- 
trines of spiritual religion — to all that he considers the peculiar 
doctrines of the Christian revelation, the author assigns to rea- 
son only a negative validity. It does not teach us, what those 
doctrines are, or what they are not, except that they are not, 
and cannot be, such as contradict the clear convictions of right 



PRELIZilTNARY ESSAY. X!X 

reason. But his views on this point aie fully stated in the 
work, and may be found by the references in note 43. The 
general office of reason in relation to all, that is proposed for 
our belief, is given with philosophical precision in the Appen- 
dix, pp. 390—391. 

If then it be our prerogative, as rational beings, and our 
duty as Christians, to think, as well as to act, rationally to 
see that our convictions of truth rest on grounds of right rea- 
son ; and if it be one of the clearest dictates of reason, that 
we should endeavor to shun, and on discovery should reject, 
whatever is contradictory to the universal laws of thought, or 
to doctrines already established, I know not by what means we 
are to avoid the application of philosophy, at least to some ex- 
tent, in the study of theology. For to determine what are 
the grounds of right reason, what are those ultimate truths, 
and those universal laws of thought, which we cannot ration- 
ally contradict, and by reflection to compare with these what- 
ever is proposed for our belief, is in fact to philosophize ; and 
whoever does this to a greater or less extent, is so far a philo- 
sopher in the best and highest sense of the word. To this 
extent we are bound to philosophize in Theology, as well as 
in every other science. For what is not rational in theology, 
is, of course, irrational, and cannot be of the household of 
faith ; and to determine whether it be rational in the sense al- 
ready explained or not, is the province of philosophy. It is 
in this sense, that the work before us is to be considered a 
philosophical work, viz. that it proves the doctrines of the 
Christian faith to be rational, and exhibits philosophical grounds 
for the possibility of a truly spiritual religion. The reality o( 
those experiences, or states of being, which constitute exper- 
imental or spiritual religion, rests on other grounds. It is in- 
cumbent on the philosopher to free them from the contradic- 
tions of reason, and nothing more ; and who will deny, that 
to do this is a purpose worthy of the ablest philosopher and 
the most devoted christian ! Is it not desirable to convince all 
men, that the doctrines, which we affirm to be revealed in the 
gospel, are not contradictory to the requirements of reason 



XX AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

and conscience. Is it not, on the other hand, vastly important 
to the cause of religious truth, and even to the practical in- 
fluence of religion on our own minds, and the minds of com- 
munity at large, that we should attain and exhibit views of 
philosophy and doctrines in metaphysics, which are at least 
compatible with, if they do not specially favour those views 
of religion, which, on other grounds, we find it our duty to be- 
lieve and maintain. For, I beg it may be observed, as a point 
of great moment, that it is not the method of the genuine phi- 
losopher to separate his philosophy and religion, and adopting 
his principles independently in each, leave them to be reconci- 
led or not, as the case may be. He has and can have rationally 
but one system, in which his philosophy becomes religious, 
and his religion philosophical. Nor am I disposed in compli- 
ance with popular opinion to limit the application of this re- 
mark, as is usually done, to the mere external evidences of 
revelation. The philosophy which we adopt will and must 
influence not only our decision of the question, whether a 
book be of divine authority, but our views also of its mean- 
ing. 

But this is a subject, on which, if possible, I would avoid 
being misunderstood, and must, therefore, exhibit it more fully, 
even at the risk of repeating what was said before, or is else- 
where found in the work. It has been already, I believe, dis- 
tinctly enough stated, that reason and philosophy ought to 
prevent our reception of doctrines claiming the authority of 
revelation only so far as the very necessities of our rational 
being require. However mysterious the thing aflirmed may 
be, though " it passeth all wider standing ^^'' if it cannot be shown 
to contradict the unchangeable principles of right reason, its 
being incomprehensible to our understandings is not an obsta- 
cle to our faith. If it contradict reason, we cannot believe it, 
but must conclude, either that the writing is not of divine au- 
thority, or that the language has been misinterpreted. So far 
it seems to me, that our philosophy ought to modify our views 
of theological doctrines, and our mode of interpreting the 
language of an inspired writer. But then we must be cautious, 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. XXI 

that we philosophize rightly, and "do not call that reason, 
which is not so." ( See p. 205. ) Otherwise we may be led 
by the supposed requirements of reason to interpret meta- 
phorically, what ought to be received literally, and evacuate 
the Scriptures of their most important doctrines. But what I 
mean to say here is, that we cannot avoid the application of 
our philosophy in the interpretation of the language of Scrip- 
ture, and in the explanation of the doctrines of religion gen- 
erally. We cannot avoid incurring the danger just alluded to 
of philosophizing erroneously, even to the extent of rejecting 
as irrational that, which tends to the perfection of reason itself. 
And hence I maintain, that instead of pretending to exclude 
philosophy from our religious enquiries, it is vastly important, 
that we philosophize in earnest — that we endeavor by profound 
reflection to learn the real requirements of reason, and attain 
a true knowledge of ourselves. 

If any dispute the necessity of thus combining the study of 
philosophy with that of religion, I would beg them to point 
out the age since that of the Apostles, in which the prevailing 
metaphysical opinions have not distinctly manifested them- 
selves in the prevailing views of religion ; and if, as I fully 
believe will be the case, they fail to discover a single system of 
theology, a single volume on the subject of the christian religion, 
in which the author's view^s are not modified by the metaphysic- 
al opinions of the age or of the individual, it would be desirable 
to ascertain, whether this influence be accidental or necessary. 
The metaphysician analyzes the faculties and operations of the 
human mind, and teaches us to arrange, to classify, and to 
name them, according to his views of their various distinctions. 
The language of the Scriptures, at least to a great extent, 
speaks of subjects, that can be understood only by a reference 
to those same powers and processes of thought and feeling, 
which we have learned to think of, and to name, according to 
our particular system of metaphysics. How is it possible then 
to avoid interpreting the one by the other? Let us suppose, 
for example, that a man has studied and adopted the philoso- 
phy of Brown, is it possible for him to interpret the 8th chap- 



XXll AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

ter of Romans, without having his views of its meaning in- 
fluenced by his philosophy ? Would he not unavoidably inter- 
pret the language and explain the doctrines, which it contains, 
differently from one, who should have adopted such views of 
the human mind, as are taught in this work ? I know it is cus- 
tomary to disclaim the influence of philosophy in the business 
of interpretation, and every writer now-a-days on such sub- 
jects will assure us, that he has nothing to do with metaphys- 
ics, but is guided only by common sense and the laws of in- 
terpretation. But I would like to know how a man comes by 
any common sense in relation to the movements and laws of 
his intellectual and moral being without metaphysics. What 
is the common sense of a Hottentot oh subjects of this sort ? 
I have no hesitation in saying, that from the very nature of the 
case, it is nearly, if not quite, impossible for any man entirely 
to separate his philosophical views of the human mind from 
his reflections on religious subjects. Probably no man has 
endeavored more faithfully to do this, perhaps no one has suc- 
ceeded better in giving the truth of Scripture free from the 
glosses of metaphysics, than Professor Stuart. Yet, I should 
risk little in saying, that a reader deeply versed in the lan- 
guage of metaphysics, extensively acquainted with the philos- 
ophy of different ages, and the peculiar phraseology of differ- 
ent schools, might ascertain his metaphysical system from 
many a passage of his commentary on the Epistle to the He- 
brews. What then, let me ask, is the possible use to the cause 
of truth and of religion, from thus perpetually decrying phi- 
losophy in theological enquiries, when we cannot avoid it if 
we would ? Every man, who has reflected at all, has his met- 
aphysics ; and if he reads on religious subjects, he interprets 
and understands the language, which he employs, by the help 
of his metaphysics. He cannot do otherwise. — And the prop- 
er enquiry is, not whether we admit our philosophy into our 
theological and religious investigations, but whether our phi- 
losophy be right and true. For myself, I am fully convinced, 
that we can have no right views of theology, till we have right 
views of the human mind : and that these are to be acquired 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. XXill 

only by laborious and persevering reflection. My belief is, 
that the distinctions unfolded in this work will place us in the 
way to truth, and relieve us from numerous perplexities, in 
which we are involved by the philosophy, which we have so 
long taken for our guide. For we are greatly deceived, if we 
suppose for a moment, that the systems of theology, which 
have been received among us, or even the theoretical views, 
which are now most popular, are free from the entanglements 
of wordly wisdom. The readers of this work will be able to 
see, I think, more clearly the import of this remark, and the 
true bearing of the received views of philosophy on our 
theological enquiries. Those, who study the work without 
prejudice and adopt its principles to any considerable extent, 
will understand too how deeply an age may be ensnared in the 
metaphysical webs of its own weaving, or entangled in the 
net, which the speculations of a former generation have thrown 
over it, and yet suppose itself blessed with a perfect immuni- 
ty from the dreaded evils of metaphysics. 

But before I proceed to remark on those particulars, in 
which our prevailing philosophy seems to me dangerous in its 
tendency, and unfriendly to the cause of spiritual religion, 
I must beg leave to guard myself and the work from misappre- 
hension on another point, of great importance in its relation 
to the whole subject. While it is maintained that reason and 
philosophy, in their true character, ought to have a certain 
degree and extent of influence in the formation of our reli- 
gious system, and that our metaphysical opinions, whatever 
they may be, will^ almost unavoidably, modify more or less 
our theoretical views of religious truth generally^ it is yet a 
special object of the author of the work to show, that the 
spiritual life, or what among us is termed experimental reli- 
gion, is, in itself, and in its own proper giowth and develope- 
ment, essentially distinct from the forms and processes of the 
understanding; and that, although a true faith cannot contra- 
dict any universal principle of speculative reason, it is yet in 
a certain sense independent of the discursions of philosophy, 
and in its proper nature beyond the reach " of positive science 



XXIV AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

and theoretical insight.^^ " Christianity is not a Theory^ or a 
Speculation; but a Life. Not a Philosophy of Life, but a 
Life and a living process." It is not, therefore, so properly a 
species of knowledge, as a form of being. And although the 
theoretical views of the understanding, and the motives of 
prudence which it presents, may be, to a certain extent, con- 
nected with the developement of the spiritual principle of re- 
ligious life in the Christian, yet a true and living faith is not 
incompatible with at least some degree of speculative error. 
As the acquisition of merely speculative knowledge cannot of 
itself communicate the principle of spiritual life, so neither 
does that principle, and the living process of its growth, de- 
pend wholly, at least, upon the degree of speculative knowl- 
edge with which it co-exists. That religion, of which our 
blessed Saviour is himself the essential Form and the living 
Word, and to which he imparts the actuating Spirit, has a prin- 
ciple of unity and consistency in itself, distinct from the unity 
and consistency of our theoretical views. This we have evi- 
dence of in every day's observation of Christian chaiacter ; 
for how often do we see and acknowledge the power of reli- 
gion, and the growth of a spiritual life, in minds but little gift- 
ed with speculative knowledge, and little versed in the forms 
of logic or philosophy. How obviously, too, does the living 
principle of religion manifest the same specific character, the 
same essential form, amidst all the diversities of condition, of 
talents, of education, and natural disposition, with which it is 
associated ; everywhere rising above nature, and the powers 
of the natural man, and unlimited in its goings on by the forms 
in which the understanding seeks to comprehend and confine its 
spiritual energies. "There are diversities of gifts, but the same 
spirit ;" and it is no less true now, than in the age of the Apos- 
tles, that in all lands, and in every variety of circumstances, 
the manifestations of spiritual life are essentially the same ; 
and all who truly believe in heart, however diverse in natu- 
ral condition, in the character of their understandings, and 
even in their theoretical views of truth, are one in Christ Je- 
sus. The essential faith is not to be found in the understand- 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. XXV 

ing or the speculative theory, but " the Life^ the Substance^ 
the Hope, the Love — in one vs^ord, the Faith — these are De- 
rivatives from the practical, moral, and Spiritual Nature and 
Being of Man." Speculative systems of theology indeed 
have often had little connexion with the essential spirit of 
religion, and are usually little more than schemes resulting 
from the strivings of the finite understanding to comprehend 
and exhibit under its own forms and conditions a mode of be- 
ing and spiritual truths essentially diverse from their proper 
objects, and with which they are incommensurate. 

This I am aware is an imperfect, and I fear may be an un- 
intelligible view, of a subject exceedingly difficult of appre- 
hension at the best. If so, I must beg the reader's indulgence, 
and request him to suspend his judgment, as to the absolute 
intelligibility of it, till he becomes acquainted with the lan- 
guage and sentiments of the work itself. It will, however, I 
hope, be so far understood, at least, as to answer the purpose 
for which it was introduced — of precluding the supposition, 
that, in the remarks which preceded, or in those which follow, 
any suspicion is intended to be expressed, with regard to the 
religious principles or the essential faith of those who hold 
the opinions in question. According to this view of the inhe- 
rent and essential nature of Spiritual Religion, as existing in 
the practical 7xason of man, we may not only admit, but 
can better understand, the possibility of what every charita- 
ble christian will acknowledge to be a fact, so far as human 
observation can determine facts of this sort — that a man may 
be truly religious, and essentially a believer at heart, while his 
understanding is sadly bewildered with the attempt to com- 
prehend and express philosophically, what yet he feels and 
knows spiritually. It is indeed impossible for us to tell, how 
far the understanding may impose upon itself by partial views 
and false disguises, without perverting the will, or estranging 
it from the laws and the authority of reason and the Divine 
Word. We cannot say, to what extent a false system of phi- 
losophy and metaphysical opinions, which in their natural and 
uncounteracted tendency would go to destroy all religion, may 



XXVI AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

be received in a christian community, and yet the power of 
spiritual religion retain its hold and its efficacy in the hearts 
of the people. We may perhaps believe that, in opposition to 
all the might of false philosophy, so long as the great body of 
the people have the Bible in their hands, and are taught to 
reverence and receive its heavenly instructions, though the 
church may suffer injury from unwise and unfruitful specu- 
lations, it will yet be preserved ; and that the spiritual seed of 
the Divine Word, though mingled with many tares of worldly 
wisdom, and philosophy falsely so called, will yet spring up, 
and bear fruit unto everlasting life. 

But though we may hope and believe this, we cannot avoid 
believing, at the same time, that injury must result from an un- 
suspecting confidence in metaphysical opinions, which are es- 
sentially at variance with the doctrines of revelation. Espe- 
cially must the effect be injurious, where those opinions lead 
gradually to alter our views of religion itself, and of all that is 
peculiar in the Christian system. The great mass of commu- 
nity, who know little of metaphysics and whose faith in reve- 
lation is not so readily influenced by speculations not immedi- 
ately connected with it, may, indeed, for a time, escape the 
evil, and continue to " receive with meekness the ingrafted 
word." But in the minds of the better educated, especially 
those who think, and follow out their conclusions with resolute 
independence of thought, the result must be either a loss of 
confidence in the opinions themselves, or a rejection of all 
those parts of the christian system which are at variance with 
them. Under particular circumstances, indeed, where both 
the metaphysical errors, and the great doctrines of the chris- 
tian faith, have a strong hold upon the minds of a community, 
a protracted struggle may take place, and earnest and long 
continued efforts may be made to reconcile opinions, which 
we are resolved to maintain, with a faith which our conscien- 
ces will not permit us to abandon. But so long as the effort 
continues, and such opinions retain their hold upon our confi- 
dence, it must be with some diminution of the fulness and 
simplicity of our faith. To a greater or less degree, accord- 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. XXVll 

ing to the education and habits of thought in different individ- 
uals, the Word of God is received with doubt, or with such 
glozing modifications as enervate its power. Thus the light 
from heaven is intercepted, and we are left to a shadow-fight 
of metaphysical schemes and metaphorical interpretations. 
While one party, with conscientious and earnest endeavors, 
and at great expense of talent and ingenuity, contends for the 
faith, and among the possible shapings of the received meta- 
physical system, seeks that which will best comport with the 
simplicity of the gospel, another more boldly interprets the 
language of the gospel itself, in conformity with those views 
of religion to which their philosophy seems obviously to con- 
duct them. The substantial being, and the living energy, of 
that Word, which is not only the light but the life of men, is 
either misapprehended or denied by all parties ; and even those 
who contend for what they conceive the literal import of the 
gospel, do it— as they must to avoid too glaring absurdity — with 
such explanations of its import, as make it to become, in no 
small degree, the "words of 'man's wisdom," rather than a 
simple " demonstration of the spirit, and of power." Hence, 
although such as have experienced the spiritual and life-giving 
power of the Divine Word, may be able, through the promis- 
ed aids of the spirit, to overcome the natural tendency of 
speculative error, and, by "the law of the spirit of life" which 
is in them, may at length be made " free from the law of sin 
and death," yet who can tell how much they may lose of the 
blessings of the gospel, and be retarded in their spiritual growth 
when they are but too often fed with the lifeless and starve- 
ling products of the human understanding, instead of that 
" living bread which came down from heaven." Who can tell, 
moreover, how many, through the prevalence of such philo- 
sophical errors as lead to misconceptions of the truth, or cre- 
ate a prejudice against it, and thus tend to intercept the hght 
from heaven, may continue in their ignorance, " alienated from 
the life of God," and groping in the darkness of their own un- 
derstandings. 

But however that may be, enlightened christians, and espe- 



XXVIU AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

cially christian instructers, know it to be their duty, as far as 
possible, to prepare the way for the full and unobstructed in- 
fluence of the Gospel, to do all in their power to remove those 
natural prejudices, and those errors of the understanding, 
which are obstacles to the truth, that the word of God may 
find access to the heart, and conscience, and reason of every 
man, that it may have " free course, and run, and be glorified." 
My own belief, that such obstacles to the influence of truth 
exist in the speculative and metaphysical opinions generally 
adopted in this country, and that the present work is in some 
measure at least calculated to remove them, is pretty clearly 
indicated by the remarks which I have already made. But, to 
be perfectly explicit on the subject, I do not hesitate to express 
my conviction, that the natural tendency of some of the lead- 
ing principles of our prevailing system of metaphysics, and 
those which must unavoidably have more or less influence on 
our theoretical views of religion, are of an injurious and dan- 
gerous tendency, and that so long as we retain them, however 
we may profess to exclude their influence from our theological 
enquiries, and from the interpretation of Scripture, we can 
maintain no consistent system of Scriptural theology, nor clear- 
ly and distinctly apprehend the spiritual import of Scripture 
language. The grounds of this conviction I shall proceed to 
exhibit, though only in a very partial manner, as 1 could not 
do more without anticipating the contents of the work itself, 
instead of merely preparing the reader to peruse them with 
attention. I am aware, too, that some of the language, which 
I have already employed, and shall be obliged to employ, will 
not convey its full import to the reader, till he becomes ac- 
quainted with some of the leading principles and distinctions 
unfolded in the work. But this, also, is an evil, which I saw 
no means of avoiding without incurring a greater, and writing 
a book instead of a brief essay. 

Let it be understood, then, without farther preface, that by 
the prevailing system of metaphysics, I mean the system, of 
which in modern times Locke is the reputed author, and the 
leading principles of which, with various modifications, more 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. XXIX 

or less important, but not altering its essential character, have 
been almost universally received in this country. It should be 
observed, too, that the causes enumerated in the Appendix of 
this work, pp. 393 — 395, as having elevated it to its "pride of 
place" in Europe, have been aided by other favouring circum- 
stances here. In the minds of our religious community espe- 
cially some of its most important doctrines have become asso- 
ciated with names justly loved and revered among ourselves, 
and so connected with all our theoretical views of religion, 
that one can hardly hope to question their validity vdthout 
hazarding his reputation, not only for orthodoxy, but even for 
common sense. To controvert, for example, the prevailing doc- 
trines with regard to the freedom of the will, the sources of 
our knowledge, the nature of the understanding as containing 
the controlling principles of our whole being, and the univer- 
sality of the law of cause and effect, even in connexion with 
the arguments and the authority of the most powerful intellect 
of the age, may even now be worse than in vain. Yet I have 
reasons for believing there are some among us, and that their 
number is fast increasing, who are willing to revise their opin- 
ions on these subjects, and who will contemplate the views 
presented in this work with a liberal, and something of a pre- 
pared feeling, of curiosity. The difficulties, in which men find 
themselves involved by the received doctrines on these sub- 
jects, in their most anxious efforts to explain and defend the 
peculiar doctrines of spiritual religion, have led many to sus- 
pect, that there must be some lurking error in the premises. 
It is not, that these principles lead us to mysteries^ which we 
cannot comprehend — they are found, or believed at least by 
many, to involve us in absurdities^ which we can comprehend. 
It is necessary, indeed, only to form some notion of the distinc- 
tive and appropriate import of the term spiritual, as opposed 
to natural in the N. T., and then to look at the writings, or 
hear the discussions, in which the doctrines of the spirit and of 
spiritual influences are taught and defended, to see the insur- 
mountable nature of the obstacles, which these metaphysical 
dogmas throw in the way of the most powerful minds. To 



XXX AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



those who shall read this work with any degree of reflection, 
it must, I think, be obvious, that something more is implied in 
the continual opposition of these terms in the N. T., than can 
be explained consistently with the prevailing opinions on the 
subjects above enumerated ; and that, through their influence 
our highest notions of that distinction have been rendered con- 
fused, contradictory, and inadequate. I have already directed 
the attention of the reader to those parts of the work, where 
this distinction is unfolded ; and had I no other grounds than 
the arguments and views there exhibited, I should be convin- 
ced, that so long as we hold the doctrines of Locke and the 
Scotch metaphysicians respecting power, cause and effect, mo- 
tives, and the freedom of the will, we not only can make and 
defend no essential distinction between that which is natural^ 
and that which is spiritual^ but we cannot even find rational 
grounds for the feeling of moral obligation^ and the distinction 
between regret and remorse. 

According to the system of these authors, as nearly and 
distinctly as my limits will permit me to state it, the same law 
of cause and effect is the law of the universe. It extends to 
the moral and spiritual — if in courtesy these terms may still 
be used — no less than to the properly natural powers and agen- 
cies of our being. The acts of the free-will are pre-deter- 
mined by a cause out of the will^ according to the same law of 
cause and eff'ect, which controls the changes in the physical 
world. We have no notion of power but uniformity of ante- 
cedent and consequent. The notion of a power in the will 
to s.ci freely^ is therefore nothing more than an inherent capa- 
city of being acted upon^ agreeably to its nature, and accord- 
ing to a fixed law, by the motives which are present in the 
understanding. I feel authorized to take this statement partly 
from Brown's philosophy, because that work has been deci- 
dedly approved by our highest theological authorities ; and in- 
deed it would not be essentially varied, if expressed in the 
precise terms used by any of the writers most usually quoted 
in reference to these subjects. 

I am aware that variations may be fouftd in the mode of 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. XXXI 

stating these doctrines, but I think every candid reader, who 
is acquainted with the metaphysics and theology of this coun- 
try, will admit the above to be a fair representation of the form 
in which they are generally received. I am aware, too, that 
much has been said and written to make out consistently with 
these general principles, a distinction between natural and 
moral causes, natural and moral ability, and inability, &c. But 
I beg all lovers of sound and rational philosophy to look care- 
fully at the general principles, and see whether there be, in 
fact, ground left for any such distinctions of this kind as are 
worth contending for. My first step in arguing with a defend- 
er of these principles, and of the distinctions in question, as 
connected with them, would be to ask for his definition of na- 
ture and natural. And when he had arrived at a distinctive 
general notion of the import of these, it would appear, if I 
mistake not, that he had first subjected our whole being to the 
law of nature, and then contended for the existence of some- 
thing which is not nature. For in their relation to the law of 
moral rectitude, and to the feeling of moral responsibility, 
what difference is there, and what difference can there be, be- 
tween what are called natural and those which are called mo- 
ral powers and aftections, if they are all under the control of 
the same universal law of cause and effect. If it still be a mere 
nature, and the determinations of our will be controlled by 
causes out of the will, according to our nature, then I main- 
tain that a moral nature has no more to do with the feeling of 
responsibility than any other nature. 

Perhaps the difficulty may be made more obvious in this 
way. It will be admitted that brutes are possessed of various 
natures^ some innocent or useful, others noxious, but all alike 
irresponsible in a moral point of view. But why ? Simply be- 
cause they act in accordance with their natures. They pos- 
sess, each according to its proper nature, certain appetites and 
susceptibilities, which are stimulated and acted upon by their 
appropriate objects in the world of the senses, and the rela- 
tion — the law of action and reaction — subsisting between these 
specific susceptibilities and their carresponding outward ob- 



XXXU AIDS TO RDf'LECTION. 

jects, constitutes their nature. They have a power of select- 
ing and choosing in the world of sense the objects appropriate 
to the wants of their nature ; but that nature is the sole law 
of their being. Their power of choice is but a part of it, in- 
strumental in accomplishing its ends, but not capable of ris- 
sing above it, of controlling its impulses, and of determining 
itself with reference to a purely ideal law, distinct from their 
nature. They act in accordance with the law of cause and 
effect, which constitutes their several natures, and cannot do 
otherwise. They are, therefore, not responsible — not capable 
of guilt, or of remorse. 

Now let us suppose another being, possessing, in addition to 
the susceptibilities of the brute, certain other specific suscep- 
tibilities with their correlative objects, either in the sensible 
world, or in a future world, but that these are subjected, like 
the other to the same binding and inalienable law of cause and 
effect. What, I ask, is the amount of the difference thus sup- 
posed between this being and the brute ? The supposed addi- 
tion, it is to be understood, is merely an addition to its nature; 
and the only power of will belonging to it is, as in the case of 
the brute, only a capacity of choosing and acting uniformly in 
accordance with its nature. These additional susceptibilities 
still act but as they are acted upon ; and the will is determined 
accordingly. What advantage is gained in this case by calling 
these supposed additions moral affections, and their correlative 
stimulants moral causes? Do we thereby find any ration- 
al ground for the feeling of moral responsibility, for conscience, 
for remorse ? The being acts according to its nature, and 
why is it blameworthy more than the brute ? If the moral 
cause existing out of the will be a power or cause which, in 
its relation to the specific susceptibility of the moral being, 
produces under the same circumstances uniformly the same re- 
sult, according to the law of cause and effect ; if the acts of the 
will be subject to the same law, as mere links in the chain of 
antecedents and consequents, and thus a part of our nature^ 
what is gained, I ask again, by the distinction of a moral and 
a physical nature. It is still only a nature under the law of 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. XXXUl 

cause and effect, and the liberty of the moral being is under 
the same condition with the liberty of the brute. Both are 
free to follow and fulfil the law of their nature, and both are 
alike hound by that law^ as by an adamantine chain. The 
very conditions of the law preclude the possibility of a power 
to act otherwise than according to their nature. They pre- 
clude the very idea of a free-will, and render the feeling of 
moral responsibility not an enigma merely, not a mystery, but 
a self-contradiction and an absurdity. 

Turn the mattei as we will — call these correlatives, viz. the 
inherent susceptibilities and the causes acting on them from 
without, natural, or moral, or spiritual — so long as their action 
and reaction, or the law of reciprocity, (see note 67), which 
constitutes their specific natures, is considered as the controll- 
ing law of our whole beings so long as we refuse to admit the 
existence in the will of a power capable of rising above this 
law, and controlling its operation by an act of absolute self- 
determination, so long we shall be involved in perplexities 
both in morals and religion. At all events, the only method 
of avoiding them will be to adopt the creed of the necessita- 
rians entire, to give man over to an irresponsible nature as a 
better sort of animal, and resolve the will of the Supreme 
Reason into a blind and irrational fate. 

I am well aware of the objections that will be made to this 
statement, and especially the demonstrated incompiehensible- 
ness of a self-determining power. To this I may be permitted 
to answer, that, admitting the power to originate an act or 
state of mind to be beyond the capacity of our understandings 
to comprehend, it is still not contradictory to reason ; and that 
I find it more easy to believe the existence of that, which is 
simply incomprehensible to my understanding, than of that, 
which involves an absurdity for my reason. I venture to af- 
firm, moreover, that however we may bring our understand- 
ings into bondage to the more comprehensible doctrine, sim- 
ply because it is comprehensible under the forms of the under- 
standing, every man does, in fact, believe himself possessed 
of freedom in the higher sense of self-determination. Every 



XXXIV AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

man's conscience commands him to believe it, whenever for 
a moment he indulges the feeling either of moral self-appro- 
bation, or of remorse. Nor can we on any other grounds 
justify the ways of God to man upon the supposition, that he 
inflicts or will inflict any other punishment, than that which is 
simply remedial or disciplinary. But this subject will be found 
more fully explained in the course of the work. My present 
object is merely to show the necessity of some system in re- 
lation to these subjects different from the received one. 

It may perhaps be thought, that the language used above is 
too strong and too positive. But I venture to ask every can- 
did man, at least every one, who has not committed himself 
by writing and publishing on the subject, whether, in consider- 
ing the great questions connected with moral accountability 
and the doctrine of rewards and punishments, he has not felt 
himself pressed with such difficulties as those above stated ; 
and whether he has ever been able fully to satisfy his reason, 
that there was not a lurking contradiction in the idea of a be- 
ing created and placed under the law of its nature, and pos- 
sessing at the same time a feeling of moral obligation to fulfil 
a law above its nature. That many have been in this state of 
mind I know. I know, too, that some, whose moral and reli- 
gious feelings had led them to a full belief in the doctrines of 
spiritual religion, but who at the same time had been taught 
to receive the prevailing opinions in metaphysics, have found 
these opinions carrying them unavoidably, if they would be 
consequent in their reasonings, and not do violence to their 
reason, to adopt a system of religion which does not profess to 
be spiritual, and have thus been compelled to choose between 
their philosophy and their religion. In most cases indeed, 
>vhere men reflect at all, I am satisfied that it requires all the 
force of authority, and all the influence of education, to carry 
the mind over these difficulties; and that then it is only by a 
vague belief, that, though we cannot see how, yet there must be 
some method of reconciling what seems to be so contradictory. 

If examples were wanting to prove that serious and trying 
difficulties are felt to exist here, enough may be found, as it 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. XXXV 

has appeared to me, in the controversy respecting the nature 
and origin of sin, which is at this moment interesting the pub- 
lic mind. Let any impartial observer trace the progress of 
that discussion, and after examining the distinctions, which are 
made or attempted to be made, decide whether the subject, as 
there presented, be not involved in difficulties, which cannot 
be solved on the principles, to which, hitherto, both parties 
have adhered ; whether, holding as ihey do the same premi- 
ses in regard to the freedom of the will, they can avoid coming 
to the same conclusion in regard to the nature and origin 
of sin ; whether, in fact, the distinctions aimed at must not 
prove merely verbal distinctions, and the controversy a fruit- 
less one. But in the September number of the Christian 
Spectator, the reader will find remarks on this subject, to 
which I beg leave to refer him, and which J could wish him 
attentively to consider in connexion with the remarks which 
I have made. I allude to the correspondence with the editors 
near the end of the number. The letter there inserted is said 
to be, and obviously is, from the pen of a very learned and able 
writer ; and I confess it has been no small gratification and en- 
couragement to me, while labouring to bring this work and this 
subject before the public, to find such a state of feeling express- 
ed, concerning'the great question at issue, by such a writer. It 
will be seen by reference to p. 545 of the C. S., that he pla- 
ces the " nucleus of the dispute" just where it is placed in this 
w^ork and in the above remarks. It will be seen, too, that by 
throwing authorities aside, and studying his own mind, he has 
" come seriously to doubt," whether the received opinions 
with regard to motives^ the law of cause and effect, and the 
freedom of the icill, may not be erroneous. They appear to 
him " to be bordering on fatalism, if not actually embracing 
it." He doubts, whether the mind may not have within itself 
the adequate cause of its own acts ; whether indeed it have not 
a self-determining power, " for the power in question involves 
the idea of originating volition. Less than this it cannot be 
conceived to involve, and y&t be free agency." Now this is 
just the view offered in the present work; and, as it seems to 



XXXVl AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

me, these are just the doubts and conclusions, which every- 
one will entertain, who lays aside authority, and reflects upon 
the goings-on of his own mind, and the dictates of his own 
reason and conscience. 

But let us look for a moment at the remarks of the editors 
in reply to the letter above quoted. They maintain, in relation 
to original sin and the perversion of the will, that from either 
the original or the acquired strength of certain natural appe- 
tites, principles of self-love, &c., "left to themselves," the 
corruption of the heart will certainly follow. " In every in- 
stance the will does, in fact, yield to the demands of these. 
But whenever it thus yielded, theix was power to the contrary ; 
otherwise there could be no freedom of moral action." Now 
I beg leave to place my finger on the phrase in italics, and ask 
the editors what they mean by it. If they hold the common 
doctrines with regard to the relation of cause and effect, and 
with regard to poiver as connected with that relation, and 
apply these to the acts of the will, I can see no more possi- 
bility of conceiving a power to the contrary in this case, than 
of conceiving such a power in the current of a river. But if 
they mean to assert the existence in the will of an actual pow- 
er to rise above the demands of appetite, &c., above the law 
of nature, and to decide arbitrarily ^ whether to yield or not 
to yield, then they admit, that the will is not determined abso- 
lutely by the extraneous cause^ but is in fact se?/*-determined. 
They agree with the letter-writer ; and the question for them 
is at rest. Thus, whatever distinctions may be attempted 
here, there can be no real distinction, but between an irres- 
ponsible nature and a will that is self-determined. The read- 
er will find a few additional remarks on this topic in note 45, 
and for the general views of the work is again referred to note 
29, and the references there made. To the subject of that note 
and to the great distinction between nature and the will, be- 
tween the natural and the spiritual, as unfolded in the work, 
I must beg leave, also, again to request the special and candid 
attention[of the reader. I must beg, too, the unprejudiced atten- 
tion of every reader, friendly to the cause of practical and 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. XXXVlI 

spiritual religion, to the tendency of this part of the author's 
system, and of the remarks hazarded above. 

I cannot but be aware, that the views of the will here ex- 
hibited will meet with strong prejudices in a large portion, at 
least, of our religious community. I could wish that all such 
would carefully distinguish between the author's views of the 
doctrines of religion, and the philosophical grounds, on which 
he supposes those doctrines are to be defended. If no one 
disputes, and I trust no one will dispute, the substantial ortho- 
doxy of the w^ork, without first carefully examining what has 
been the orthodoxy of the church in general, and of the great 
body of the reformers, then I could hope it may be wisely 
considered, whether, as a question of philosophy, the meta- 
physical principles of this work are not in themselves more in 
accordance with the doctrines of a spiritual religion, and bet- 
ter suited to their explanation and defence, than those above 
treated of. If on examination it cannot be disputed that they 
are, then, if not before, I trust the two systems may be com- 
pared without undue partiality, and the simple question of the 
truth of each may be determined by that calm and persevering 
reflection, which alone can determine questions of this sort. 

If the system here taught be true, then it will follow, not, 
be it observed, that our religion is necessarily wTong, or our 
essential faith erroneous, but that the philosophical grounds^ 
on which we are accustomed to defend our faith, are unsafe, 
and that their natural tendency is to error. If the spirit of 
the gospel still exert its influence ; if a truly spiritual religion 
be maintained, it is in opposition to our philosophy, and not 
at all by its aid. I know it will be said, that the practical re- 
sults of our peculiar forms of doctrine are at variance with 
these remarks. But this I am not prepared to admit. True, 
religion and religious institutions have flourished ; the gospel, 
in many parts of our country, has been affectionately and faith- 
fully preached by great and good men ; the word and the spi- 
rit of God have been communicated to us in rich abundance ; 
and I rejoice, with heartfelt joy and thanksgiving, in the belief, 
that thereby multitudes have been regenerated to a new and 



XXXVlU AIDS TO REFLECTIOxV. 

spiritual life. But so were equal or greater effects produced 
under the preaching of Baxter, and Howe, and otiier good 
and faithful men of the same age, with none of the peculiari- 
ties of our theological systems. Neither reason nor experi- 
ence indeed furnish any ground for believing, that the living 
and life-giving power of the Divine Word has ever derived 
any portion of its efficacy, in the conversion of the heart to 
God, from the forms of metaphysical theology, with which the 
human understanding has invested it. It requires, moreover, 
but little knowledge of the history of philosophy, and of the 
writings of the 16th and 17th centuries to know, that the 
opinions of the reformers and of all the great divines of that 
period, on subjects of this sort, were far different from those of 
Mr. Locke and his followers, and were in fact essentially the 
same with those taught in this work., This last remark ap- 
plies not only to the views entertained by the eminent phi- 
losophers and divines of that period on the particular subject 
above discussed, but to the distinctions made, and the language 
employed, by them with reference to other points of no less 
importance in the constitution of our being. 

It must have been observed by the reader of the foregoing 
pages, that I have used several words, especially understand- 
ing and reason^ in a sense somewhat diverse from their pre- 
sent acceptation ; and the occasion of this I suppose would be 
partly understood from my having already directed the attention 
of the reader to the distinction exhibited between these words 
in the work, and from the remarks made on the ambiguity of 
the word reason in its common use. I now proceed to remark, 
that the ambiguity spoken of, and the consequent perplexity 
in regard to the use and authority of reason, have arisen from 
the habit of using, since the time of Locke, the terms under- 
standing and reason indiscriminately, and thus confounding a 
distinction clearly marked in the philosophy and in the lan- 
guage of the older writers. Alas ! had the terms only been 
confounded, or had we suffered only an inconvenient ambigui- 
ty of language, there would 'be comparatively little cause for 
eainestness ojpon the subject ; or had our views of the things 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. XXXIX 

signified by these terms been only partially confused, and had 
we still retained correct notions of our prerogative, as ration- 
al and spiritual beings, the consequences might have been less 
deplorable. But the misfortune is, that the powers of under- 
standing and reason have not merely been blended and con- 
founded in the view of our philosophy, the higher and far more 
characteristic, as an essential constituent of our proper human- 
ity, has been as it were obscured and hidden from our obser- 
vation in the inferior power, which belongs to us in common 
with the brutes that perish. According to the old, the more 
spiritual, and genuine philosophy, the distinguishing attributes 
of our humanity — that " image of God" in which man alone 
was created of all the dwellers upon earth, and in virtue of 
which he was placed at the head of this lower world, was said 
to be found in the reason and free-will. But understanding 
these in their strict and proper sense and according to the true 
ideas of them, as contemplated by the older metaphysicians, 
we have literally, if the system of Locke and the popular phi- 
losophy of the day be true, neith-er the one nor the other of 
these — neither reason nor free-will. What they esteemed the 
image of God in the soul, and considered as distinguishing us 
specifically, and so vastly too, above each and all of the irra- 
tional animals, is found, according to this system, to have in 
fact no real existence. The reality neither of the free-will, 
nor of any of those laws or ideas, which spring from, or ra- 
ther constitute, reason, can be authenticated by the sort of 
proof which is demanded, and we must therefore relinquish 
our prerogative, and take our place with becoming humility 
among our more unpretending companions. In the ascending 
series of powers, enumerated by Milton, with so much philo- 
sophical truth, as well as beauty of language, in the fifth book 
of Paradise Lost,,he mentions 

Fancy and understanding, whence the soul 
Reason receives. And reason is her being, 
Discursive or intuitive. 

But the highest power here, that which is the Being of the 
soul, considered as any thing diftering in kind from the under- 



Xl AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

standing, has no place in our popular metaphysics. Thus we 
have only the undei^standing^ " the-iJaculty judging according 
to sense," a faculty of abstracting and generalizing, of contri- 
vance and forecast, as the highest of our intellectual powers ; 
and this we are expressly taught belongs to us in common with 
brutes. Nay, these views of our essential being, consequen- 
ces and all, are adopted by men, whom one would suppose 
religion, if not philosophy, should have taught their utter in- 
adequateness to the true and essential constituents of our hu- 
manity. Dr. Paley tells us in his Nat. Theology, that only 
" CONTRIVANCE," a power obviously and confessedly belong- 
ing to brutes, is necessary to constitute personality. His 
whole system both of theology and morals neither teaches, 
nor implies, the existence of any specific difference either be- 
tween the understanding and reason, or between nature and 
the will. It does not imply the existence of any power in 
man, which does not obviously belong in a greater. or less de- 
gree to irrational animals. Dr. Fleming, another reverend 
prelate in the English church, in his "Philosophy of Zoology," 
maintains in express terms, that we have no faculties differing 
in kind from those which belong to brutes. How many other 
learned, and reverend, and wise men adopt the same opinions, I 
know not : though these are are obviously not the peculiar views 
of the individuals, but conclusions resulting from the essential 
principles of their system. If, then, there is no better si/s/em, 
if this be the genuine philosophy, and founded in the nature 
of things, there is no help for us, and we must believe it — if 
we can. But most certainly it will follow, that we ought, as 
fast as the prejudices of education will permit, to rid ourseh^es 
of certain notions of prerogative, and certain feelings of our 
own superiority, which somehow have been strangely preva- 
lent among our race. For though we have indeed, according 
to this system, a little more understanding than other animals — 
can abstract and generalize and fore-cast events, and the con- 
sequences of our actions, and compare motives more skilfully 
than they ; though we have thus more knowledge and can cir- 
cumvent them ; though we iiave more power and can subdue 



PHELIMINARY ESSAY. XU 

them; yet, as to any distinctive and peculiar characteristic — 
as to any inherent and essential ivortk^ we are after all but lit- 
tle better — though we may be better off — than our dogs and 
horses. There is no essential difference, and we may ration- 
ally doubt — at least we might do so, if by the supposition we 
were rational beings — whether our fellow animals of the ken- 
nel and the stall are not unjustly deprived of certain per'sonal 
rights^ and whether a dog charged with trespass may not ra- 
tionally claim to be tried by a jury of his pee7's. Now how- 
ever trifling and ridiculous this may appear, I would ask in 
truth and soberness, if it be not a fair and legitimate inference 
from the premises, and whether the absurdity of the one does 
not demonstrate the utter falsity of the other. And where, I 
would beg to know, shall we look, according to the popular 
system of philosophy, for that "image of God" in which we 
are created ? Is it a thing of degrees 9 and is it simply be- 
cause we have something more of the same faculties which 
belong to brutes, that we become the objects of God's special 
and fatherly care, the distinguished objects of his Providence, 
and the sole objects of his Grace ? — " Doth God take care for 
oxen ?" But why not ? 

I assure my readers, that I have no desire to treat with dis- 
respect and contumely the opinions of great or good men ; but 
the distinction in question, and the assertion and exhibition of 
the higher prerogatives of reason, as an essential constituent 
of our being, are so vitally important, in my apprehension, to 
the formation and support of any rational system of philoso- 
phy, and — no less than the distinction before treated of — so 
pregnant of consequences to the interests of truth, in morals, 
and religion, and indeed of all truth, that mere opinion and 
the authority of names may well be disregarded. The discus- 
sion, moreover, relates to facts, and to such facts, too, as are 
not to be learned from the instruction, or received on the au- 
thority, of any man. They must be ascertained by every man 
for himself, by reflection upon the processes and laws of his 
own inward being, or they are not learned at all to any valua- 
ble purpose. We do indeed find in ourselves then, as no one 

F 



Xlii AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

will deny, certain powers of intelligence, \vhich we have 
abundant reason to believe the brutes possess in common with 
us in a greater or less degree. The functions of the under- 
standing, as treated of in the popular systems of metaphysics, 
its faculties of attention, of abstraction, of generalization, the 
power of forethought and contrivance, of adapting means to 
ends, and the law of association, may be, so far as we can 
judge, severally represented more or less adequately in the 
instinctive inteUigence of the higher orders of brutes. But, 
not to anticipate too far a topic treated of in the work, do 
these, or any and all the faculties which we discover in irra- 
tional animals, satisfactorily account to a reflecting mind for 
all the phsenomena, which are presented to our observation 
in our own consciousness ? Would any supposable addition to 
the degree merely of those powers which we ascribe to brutes 
render them rational beings, and remove the sacred distinction, 
which law and reason have sanctioned, between things and 
persons ? Will any such addition account for our having— 
what the brute is not supposed to have — the pure ideas of the 
geometrician, the power of ideal construction, the intuition of 
geometrical or other necessary and universal truths ? Would 
it give rise, in irrational animals, to a law of moral rectitude 
and to conscience — to the feelings of moral responsibility and 
remorse 7 Would it awaken them to a reflective self-conscioua- 
ness, and lead them to form and contemplate the ideas^oi the 
soul^ oi free-will^ of immortality, and of God. It seems to 
me, that we have only to reflect for a serious hour upon what 
we mean by these, and then to compare them with our no- 
tion of what belongs to a brute, its inherent powers and their 
correlative objects, to feel that they are utterly incompatible — 
that in the possession of these we enjoy a prerogative, which 
we cannot disclaim without a violation of reason, and a volun- 
tary abasement of ourselves — and that we must therefore be 
possessed of some peculiar powers — of some source of ideas 
distinct from the understanding, differing in kind from any and 
all of those which belong to us in common with inferior and 
irrational animals. 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 



xliii 



But what these powers are, or what is the precise nature of 
the distinction between the understanding and reason, it is not 
my province, nor have I undertaken, to show. My object is 
merely to illustrate its necessity, and the palpable obscurity, 
vagueness, and deficiency, in this respect, of the mode of phi- 
losophizing, which is held in so high honour among us. The 
distinction itself will be found illustrated with some of its im- 
portant bearings in the work, and in the notes and Appendix at- 
tached to it ; and cannot be too carefully studied — in connex- 
ion with that between nature and the will — by the student who 
would acquire distinct and intelligible notions of what consti- 
tutes the truly spiritual in our being, or find rational grounds for 
the possibility of a truly spiritual religion. Indeed, could I suc- 
ceed in fixing the attention of the reader upon this distinction, 
in such a way as to secure his candid and reflecting perusal of 
the work, I should consider any personal effort or sacrifice 
abundantly recompensed. Nor am I alone in this view of its 
importance. A literary friend, whose opinion on this subject 
would be valued by all who know the soundness of his schol- 
arship, says, in a letter just now received, "if you can once 
get the attention of thinking men fixed on his distinction be- 
tween the reason and the understanding, you will have done 
enough to reward the labour of a life. As prominent a place 
as it holds in the writings of Coleridge, he seems to me far 
enough from making too much of it." No person of serious 
and philosophical mind, I am confident, can reflect upon the 
subject, enough to understand it in its various aspects, without 
arriving at the same views of the importance of the distinction, 
whatever may be his conviction with regard to its truth. 

But indeed the only ground, which I find, to apprehend that 
the reality of the distinction and the importance of the conse- 
quences resulting from it will be much longer denied and re- 
jected among us, is in the overweening assurance, which pre- 
vails with regard to the adequateness and perfection of the 
system of philosophy which is already received. It is taken 
for granted, as a fact undisputed and indisputable, that this is 
the most enlightened age of the world, not only in regard to 



Xliv AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

the more general diffusion of certain points of practical knowl- 
edge, in which, probably, it may be so, but in all respects ; 
that our whole system of the philosophy of mind as derived from 
Ld. Bacon, especially, is the only one, which has any claims 
to common sense ; and that all distinctions not recognized in 
that are consequently unworthy of our regard. What those 
reformers, to whose transcendent powers of mind, and to 
whose characters as truly spiritual divines, we are accustomed 
to look with feelings of so much general- regard, might find to 
say in favour of their philosophy, few take the pains to inquire. 
Neither they nor the great philosophers, with whom they held 
communion on subjects of this sort, can appear among us to 
speak in their own defence ; and even the huge Folios and 
Quartos, in which, though dead, they yet speak — and ought to 
be heard — have seldom strayed to this side of the Atlantic. 
All our information respecting their philosophical opinions, and 
the grounds on which they defended them, has been received 
from writers, who were confessedly advocating a system of 
recent growth, at open ^var wdth every thing more ancient, 
and who, in the great abundance of their self-complacency, 
have represented their own discoveries as containing the sum 
and substance of all philosophy, and the accumulated treasures 
of ancient wisdom as unworthy the attention of " this enlight- 
ened age." Be it so. — Yet the "foohshness" of antiquity, if 
it be " of God," may prove " wiser than men." It may be 
found, that the philosophy of the reformers and their religion 
are essentially connected, and must stand or fall together. It 
may at length be discovered, that a system of religion essen- 
tially spiritual, and a system of philosophy that excludes the 
very idea of all spiritual power and agency, in their only dis- 
tinctive and proper character, cannot be consistently associated 
together. 

It is our peculiar misfortune in this country, that while the 
philosophy of Locke and the Scottish writers has been receiv- 
ed in full faith, as the only rational system, and its leading 
principles especially passed off as unquestionable, the strong 
attachment to religion, and the fondness for speculation, by 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. xlv 

both of which we are strongly characterized, liave led us to 
combine and associate these principles, such as they are, with 
our religious interests and opinions, so variously and so inti- 
mately, that by most persons they are considered as necessa- 
ry parts of the same system ; and from being so long contem- 
plated together, the rejection of one seems impossible without 
doing violence to the other. Yet how much evidence might 
not an impartial observer find in examining the theological dis- 
cussions that have prevailed, the speculative systems, that 
have been formed and arrayed against each other, for the last 
seventy years, to convince him, that there must be some discord- 
ance in the elements, some principle of secret but irreconcila- 
ble hostility between a philosophy and a religion, which, under 
every ingenious variety of form and shaping, still stand aloof 
from each other, and refuse to cohere. For is it not a fact, 
that in regard to every speculative system, w^hich has been 
formed on these philosophical principles, — to every new sha- 
ping of theory, which has been devised and gained its adhe- 
rents among us, — is it not a fact, I ask, that, to all, except those 
adherents, the system — the philosophical theory — has seemed 
dangerous in its tendency, and at war with orthodox views of 
religion — perhaps even with the attributes of God. Nay, to 
bring the matter still nearer and more plainly to view, I ask, 
whether at this moment the organs and particular friends of 
our leading theological seminaries in New England, both de- 
votedly attached to an orthodox and spiritual system of reli- 
gion, and expressing mutual confidence as to the essentials of 
their mutual faith, do not each consider the other as holding a 
philosophical theory subversive of orthodoxy ? If I am not 
misinformed, this is the simple fact. 

Now, if these things be so, I would ask again with all earnest- 
ness, and out of regard to the interests of truth alone, whether 
serious and reflecting men may not be permitted, without the 
charge of heresy in Religion, to stand in doubt of this Phi- 
losophy altogether ; whether these facts, which will not be 
disputed, do not furnish just ground for suspicion, that the 
principles of our philosophy may be erroneous, or at least in- 



Xlvi AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

duce us to look with candour and impartiality at the claims of 
another and a different system. 

What are the claims of the system, to which the attention 
of the public is invited in this work, can be understood fully, 
only by a careful and reflecting examination of its principles 
in connexion with the conscious wants of our own inward be- 
ing — the requirements of our own reason and consciences. 
Its purpose and tendency, I have endeavoured in some meas- 
ure to exhibit ; and if the influence of authority, which the 
prevailing system furnishes against it can, and must be coun- 
teracted by any thing of a like kind — ( and whatever profes- 
sions we may make, the influence of authority produces at 
least a predisposing eflect upon our minds) — the remark which 
I have made, will show, that the principles here taught are not 
wholly unauthorized by men, whom we have been taught to 
reverence among the great and good. I cannot but add, as a 
matter of simple justice to the question, that however our 
prevailing system of philosophizing may have appealed to the 
authority of Lord Bacon, it needs but a candid examination of 
his writings, especially the first part of his Novum Organum, 
to be convinced, that such an appeal is without grounds ; and 
/that in fact the fundamental principles of his philosophy are 
Ithe same with those taught in this work. The great distinction, 
especially, between the understanding and the reason is clear- 
ly and fully recognized ; and as a philosopher he would^ be far 
more properly associated with Plato or even Aristotle, than 
with the modern philosophers, who have miscalled their sys- 
tems by his name. For farther remarks on this point, the 
reader is requested to refer to notes 50 and 59. In our ow^n 
times, moreover, there is abundant evidence, whatever may 
be thought of the principles of this work here, that the same 
general views of philosophy are regaining their ascendancy 
elsewhere. In Great Britain there are not a few, who begin 
to believe, that the deep toned and sublime eloquence of Cole- 
ridge on these great subjects may have something to claim 
their attention besides a few peculiarities of language. At 
Paris, the doctrines of a rational and spiritual system of phi- 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. xlvii 

losophy are taught to listening and admiring thousands by one 
of the most learned and eloquent philosophers of the age : 
and in Germany, if I mistake not, the same general views are 
adopted by the serious friends of religious truth among her 
great and learned men. 

Such — as I have no doubt — must be the case, wherever 
thinking men can be brought distinctly and impartially to ex- 
amine their claims ; and indeed, to those who shall study and 
comprehend the general history of philosophy, it must always 
be matter of special wonder, that in a christian community, anx- 
iously striving to explain and defend the doctrines of Christian- 
ity in their spiritual sense, there should have been a long con- 
tinued and tenacious adherence to philosophical principles, so 
subversive of their faith in every thing distinctively spiritual ; 
while those of an opposite tendency, and claiming a near rela- 
tionship and correspondence with the truly spiritual in the 
christian system, and the mysteries of its sublime faith, were 
looked upon with suspicion and jealousy, as unintelligible or 
dangerous metaphysics. 

And here I must be allowed to add a few remarks with re- 
gard to the popular objections against the system of philoso- 
phy, whose claims I am urging, especially against the writings 
of the author, under whose name it appears in the present 
work. These are various and often contradictory, but usually 
have reference either to his peculiarities of language, or to the 
depth — whether apparent or real, — and the unintelligibleness, 
of his thoughts. 

To the fii-st of these it seems to me a sufficient answer, for 
a mind that would deal honestly and frankly by itself, to sug- 
gest that in the very nature of things it is impossible for a wri- 
ter to express by a single word any truth, or to mark any dis- 
tinction, not recognized in the language of his day, unless 
he adopts a word entirely new, or gives to one already in use a 
new and more peculiar sense. Now in communicating truths, 
which the writer deems of great and fundamental importance, 
shall he thus appropriate a single word old or new, or trust to 
the vagueness of perpetual circumlocution ? Admitting; for 



Xlviii AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

example, the existence of the important distinction, for which 
this writer contends, between the understanding and reason, 
and that this distinction, when recognized at all, is confounded 
in the common use of language by employing the words in- 
discriminately, shall he still use these words indiscriminately, 
and eitl^er invent a new word, or mark the distinction by de- 
scriptive circumlocutions, or shall he assign a more distinctive 
and precise meaning to the words already used ? It seems to 
me obviously more in accordance with the laws and genius 
of language to take the course, which he has adopted. But in 
this case and in many others, where his language seems pecul- 
iar, it cannot be denied that the words had already been em- 
ployed in the same sense, and the same distinctions recogni- 
zed, by the older and many of the most distinguished writers 
in the language. But the reader will find the author's own 
views of the subject in the Appendix, pp. 347 — 348, and pp. 
355—357, and p. 397. See also note 22. 

With regard to the more important objection, that the 
thoughts of Coleridge are unintelligible, if it be intended to 
imply, that his language is not in itself expressive of an intel- 
ligible meaning, or that he affects the appearance of depth and 
mystery, while his thoughts are common-place, it is an objec- 
tion, which no one who has read his works attentively, and 
acquired a feeling of interest for them, will treat their author 
with so much disrespect as to answer at all. Every such rea- 
der knows, that he uses words uniformly with astoni^shing^pre- 
pjsioD , and that language becomes, in his use of it — in a de- 
gree, of which few writers can give us a conception — a living 
power, " consubstantial" with the power of thought, that gave 
birth to it, and awakening and calling into action a correspon- 
ding energy in our own minds. There is little encourage- 
ment, moreover, to answer the objections of any man, who 
will permit himself to be incurably prejudiced against an au- 
thor by a few peculiarities of language, or an apparent difficul- 
ty of being understood, and without enquiring into the cause of 
that difficulty, where at the same time he cannot but see and 
acknowledge the presence of great intellectual and moral pow- 
er. 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. xlix 

But if it be intended by the objection to say simply, that the 
thoughts of the author are often difficult to be apprehended — 
that he makes Ijarge demands not only upon the attention, but 
upon the reflecting and thinking powers, of his readeis, the 
fact is not, and need not be, denied ; and it will only remain to 
be decided, whether the instruction offered, as the reward, 
will repay us for the expenditure of thought required, or can 
be obtained for less. I know it is customary in this country, 
as well as in Great Britain — and that too among men from 
whom different language might be expected — to affect either 
contempt or modesty, in regard to all that is more than com- 
mon-place in philosophy, and especially " Coleridge's Meta- 
physics," as " too deep for them." Now it may not be eve- 
ry man's duty, or in every man's power, to devote to such 
studies the time and thought necessary to understand the deep 
things of philosophy. But for one, who professes to be a 
scholar, and to cherish a manly love of truth for the truth's 
sake, to object to a system of metaphysics because it is " too 
deep for him," must be either a- disingenuous insinuation, that 
its depths are not worth exploring — which is more than the 
objector knows — or a confession, that — with all his professed 
love of truth and knowledge — he prefers to " sleep after din- 
ner." The misfortune is, that men have been cheated into a 
belief, that all philosophy and metaphysics worth knowing are 
contained in a few volumes, which can be understood with lit- 
tle expense of thought ; and that they may very well spare 
themselves the vexation of trying to comprehend the depths 
of " Coleridge's Metaphysics." According to the popular no- 
tions of the day, it is a very easy matter to understand the 
philosophy of mind. A new work on philosophy is as easy to 
read as the last new novel ; and superficial, would-be scholars, 
who have a very sensible horror at the thought of studying 
Algebra, or the doctrine of fluxions, can yet go through a 
course of moral sciences, and know all about the philosophy 
of the mind. 

Now why will not men of sense, and men who have any 
just pretensions to scholarship, see that there must of neces- 

G 



1 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

sity be gross sophistry somewhere in any system of metaphys- 
ics, which pretends to give us an adequate and scientific self- 
knowledge — to render comprehensible to us the mysterious 
laws of our own inward being, with less manly and persever- 
ing effort of thought on our part, than is confessedly required 
to comprehend the simplest of those sciences, all o^which 
are but some of the phaenomena, from which the laws in ques- 
tion are to be inferred ? Why will they not see and acknowl- 
edge — what one would suppose a moment's reflection would 
teach them — that to attain true self-knowledge by reflection 
upon the objects of our inward consciousness — not merely to 
understand the motives of our conduct as conscientious chris- 
tians, but to know ourselves scientifically as philosophers — 
must, of necessity, be the most deep and difficult of all our 
attainments in know^ledge ? I trust that what I have already 
said will be suf&cient to expose the absurdity of objections 
against metaphysics in general, and do something towards 
showing, that we are in actual and urgent need of a system 
somewhat deeper than those, the contradictions of which have 
not without reason made the name of philosophy a terror to 
the friends of truth and of religion. " False metaphysics can 
be effectually counteracted by true metaphysics alone ; and if 
the reasoning be clear, solid, and pertinent, the truth dedu- 
eed caa never be the less valuable on account of tha depth 
from which it may have been drawn." It is a fact, too, of 
great importance to be kept in mind, in relation to this sub- 
ject, that in the study of ourselves — in attaining a knowledge 
of our own being, there are truths of vast conceinment, and 
living at a great depth, which yet no man can draw for ano- 
ther. However the depth may have been fathomed, and the 
same truth brought up by others, for a light and a joy to their 
own minds, it must still remain, and be sought for by us, each 
for himself, at the bottom of the well. 

The system of philosophy here taught does not profess to 
make men philosophers, or — which ought to mean the same 
hing — to guide them to the knowledge of themselves, without 
the labour both of attention and of severe thinking. If it 



rkEJ.lIMINAKy ESSAY. U 

did so, it would have, like the more popular works of philoso- 
phy, far less affinity, than it now has, with the mysteries oi 
religion, aud those profound truths concerning our spiritual be- 
ing and destiny, which are revealed in the " things hard to be 
understood" of St. Paul and of the " beloved disciple." For 
I cannot but remind my readers again, that the author does 
not undertake to teach us the philosophy of the human mind, 
with the exclusion of the truths and influences of religion. 
He would not undertake to philosophize respecting the being 
and character of man, and at the same time exclude from his 
view the very principle which constitutes his proper humani- 
ty : he would not, in teaching the doctrine of the solar sys- 
tem, omit to mention the sun, and the law of gravitation. He 
professes to investigate and unfold the being of man as man^ in 
his higher, his peculiar, and distinguishing attributes. These it 
is, which are "hard to be understood," and to apprehend which 
requires the exercise of deep reflection and exhausting thought. 
Nor in aiming at this object would he consider it very philo- 
sophical to reject the aid and instruction of eminent writers 
on the subject of religion, or even of the volume of revelation 
itself. He would consider St. Augustine as none the less a 
philosopher, because he became a christian. The Apostles 
John and Paul were, in the view of this system of philosophy, 
^•the most rational of all writers, and the New Testament the 
most philosophical of all books. They are so, because they 
unfold more fully, than any other, the true and essential prin- 
ciples of our being ; because they give us a clearer and deeper 
insight into those constituent laws of our humanity, which as 
men, and therefore as philosophers, we are most concerned to 
know. Not only to those, who seek the practical self-knowl- 
edge of the humble, spiritually minded, christian, but to those 
also, who are impelled by the " heaven descended yvw^j rfsaurov" 
to study themselves as philosophers, and to make self-knowl- 
edge a science, the truths of Scripture are a light and a reve- 
lation. The more earnestly we reflect upon these and refer 
them, whether as christians or as philosophers, to the move- 
ments of our inward being— to the laws which reveal them- 



lii AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

selves in our own consciousness, the more fully shall we un- 
derstand, not only the language of Scripture, but all that most 
demands and excites the curiosity of the genuine philosopher 
in the mysterious character of man. It is by this guiding light, 
that we can but search into and apprehend the constitution of 
that " marvellous microcosm," which, the more it has been 
known, has awakened more deeply the wonder and admiration 
of the true philosopher in every age. 

Nor would the author of this work, or those who have im- 
bibed the spirit of his system, join with the philosophers of 
the day in throwing aside and treating with a contempt, as 
ignorant as it is arrogant, the treasures of ancient wisdom. 
"He," says the son of Sirach, "that giveth his mind to the 
law of the Most High, and is occupied in the meditation thereof, 
will seek out the wisdom of all the ancient." In the estima- 
tion of the true philosopher, the case should not be greatly 
altered in the present day ; and now that two thousand years 
have added such rich and manifold abundance to those ancient 
" sayings of the wise," he will still approach them with reve- 
rence, and receive their instruction with gladness of heart. 
In seeking to explore and unfold those deeper and more sol- 
emn mysteries of our being, which inspire us with awe, while 
they baffle our comprehension, he will especially beware of 
trusting to his own understanding, or of contradicting, in com- 
pliance with the self-flattering inventions of a single age, the 
universal faith and consciousness of the human race. On such 
subjects, though he would call no man master, yet neither 
would he Avillingly forego the aids to be derived, in the seaich 
after truth, from those great oracles of human wisdom — those 
giants in intellectual power, who from generation to genera- 
tion were admired and venerated by the great and good. Much 
less could he think it becoming, or consistent with his duty, to 
hazard the publication of his own thoughts on subjects of the 
deepest concernment, and on which minds of greatest depth 
and power had been occupied in former ages, while confessed- 
ly ignorant alike of their doctrines, and of the arguments by 
which they are sustained. 



PRELIIkllNARY ESSAY. Uii 

It is in this spirit, that the author of the work here offered 
to the puhlic has prepared himself to deserve the candid and 
even confiding attention of his readers, with reference to the 
great subjects of which he treats. 

And although the claims of the work upon our attention, as 
of every other work, must depend more upon its inherent and 
essential character, than upon the worth and authority of its 
author, it may yet be of service to the reader to know, that 
he is no hasty or unfurnished adventurer in the department of 
authorship, to which the work belongs. The discriminating 
reader of this work cannot fail to discover his profound knowl- 
edge of the philosophy of language, the principles of its con- 
struction, and the laws of its interpretation. In others of his 
works, perhaps more fully than in this, there is evidence of 
an unrivalled mastery over all that pertains both to logic and 
philology. It has been already intimated, that he is no con- 
temner of the great writers of antiquity and of their wise sen- 
tences; and probably few English scholars, even in those days 
when there were giants of learning in Great Britain, had minds 
more richly furnished with the treasures of ancient lore. But 
especially will the reader of his works observe with admira- 
tion the profoundness of his philosophical attainments, and his 
thorough and intimate knowledge, not only of the works and 
systems of Plato and Aristotle, and of the celebrated philoso- 
phers of modern times, but of those too much neglected wri- 
tings of the Greek and Roman Fathers, and of the great lea- 
ders of the reformation, which more particularly qualify him 
for discussing the subjects of the present work. If these 
qualifications, and — with all these, and above all — a disposi- 
tion professed and made evident seriously to value them, chief- 
ly as they enable him more fully and clearly to apprehend and 
illustrate the truths of the christian system, — if these, I say, 
can give an author a claim to a serious and thoughtful atten- 
tion, then may the work here offered urge its claims upon the 
reader. My own regard for the cause of truth, for the inter- 
ests of philosophy, of reason, and of religion, lead me to hope 
that they may not be urged in vain. 



liV AIDS TO REFLECTIOX. 

Of his general claims to our regard, whether from exalted 
personal and moral worth, or from the magnificence of his intel- 
lectual powers, and the vast extent and variety of his accumula- 
ted stores of knowledge, I shall not venture to speak. If it be 
true indeed, that a really great mind can be worthily com- 
mended, only by those, who adequately both appreciate and 
comprehend its greatness, there are few, who should under- 
take to estimate, and set forth in appropriate terms, the intel- 
lectual power and moral worth of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 
Neither he, nor the public, would be benefited by such com- 
mendations as I could bestow. The few among us who have 
read his works with the attention which they deserve, are at 
no loss what rank to assign him among the writers of the 
present age ; to those, who have not, any language, which I 
might use, would appear hyperbolical and extravagant. The 
character and influence of his principles as a philosopher, a 
moralist, and a christian, and of the writings by which he is 
enforcing them, do not ultimately depend upon the estimation 
in which they may now be held ; and to posterity he may safe- 
ly entrust those "productive ideas" and "living words" — 
those 



" To perish never," 

the possession of which will be for their benefit, and connect- 
ed with which, in the language of the son of Sirach, — "His 
own memorial shall not depart away, and his name shall live 
from generation to generation." 

J. M. 



ADVERTISEMENT 



In the bodies of several species of Animals there are found certain Parts 
of which neither the office, the functions, nor the relations could be ascer- 
tained by the Comparative Anatomist, till he had become acquainted with 
the state of the Animal before birth. Something sufficiently hke this (for 
the purjiose of an illustration, at least) applies to the Work here offered to 
the Public. In the introductoiy portion there occur several passages, 
which the Reader will be puzzled to decypher, without some information 
respecting the original design of the Volume, and the Changes it has un- 
dergone during its immature and embryonic state. On this account only, 
I think myself bound to make it known, that the Work was proposed and 
begun as a mere Selection from the Writings of Archbishop Leighton, un- 
der the usual title of The Beauties of Archbishop Leighton, with a few 
notes and a biographical preface by the Selector. Hence the term, EditoVy 
subscribed to the notes, and prefixed alone or conjointly to the Aphorisms, 
accordingly as the Passage was written entirely by myself, or only modi- 
fied and [avotoedly) intei-polated. I continued the use of the word on the 
plea of uniformity : though like most other deviations from propriety of 
language, it would probably have been a wiser choice to have omitted or 
exchanged it. The various Reflections, however, that pressed on me 
while I was considering the motives for selecting this or that passage ; the 
desire of enforcing, and as it were integrating, the truths contained in the 
Original Author, by adding those which the words suggested or recalled to 
my own mind ; the conversation with men of eminence in the Literary 
and Religious Circles, occasioned by the Objects which I had in view ; 
and lastly, the increasing disproportion of the Commentaiy to the Text, 
and the too marked difference in the frame, character, and color of the two 
styles ; soon induced me to recognize and adopt a revolution in, my plan 
and object, which had in fact actually talcen place without my intention, 
and almost unawares. It would indeed be more con-ect to say, that the 
present Volume owed its accidental origin to the intention of compiling 
one of a different description, than to speak of it as the same Work. It is 
not a change in the child, but a changeling. 

Still, however, the selections from Leighton, which will be found in the 
prudential and moral Sections of this Work, and which I could retain 
consistently with its present form and matter, will both from the intrinsic 



Ivi ADVERTISEMENT. 

excellence and from the characteristic beauty of the passages, suffice to 
answer two prominent purjDoses of the original plan ; that of placing in a 
clear light the principle, which pervades all Leighton's Writings— his sub- 
lime View, I mean, of ReUgion and Morality as the means of reforming 
the human Soul in the Divine Image (Idea) ; and that of exciting an in- 
terest in the Works, and an affectionate reverence for the name and me- 
mory, of this severely tried and truly primitive Churchman. 

S. T. C. 



PREFACE. 



An Author has three points to settle : to what sort his Work 
belongs, for what Description of Readers it is intended, and 
the specific end or object, which it is to answer. There is 
indeed a preh'minary Interrogative respecting the end which 
the Writer himself has in view, whether the Number of Pur- 
chasers, or the Benefit of the Readers. But this may be 
safely passed by ; since where the book itself or the known 
principles of the writer do not supersede the question, there 
will seldom be sufficient strength of character for good or. for 
evil, to afford much chance of its being either distinctly put or 
fairly answered. 

I shall proceed therefore to state as briefly as possible the 
intentions of the present volume in reference to the three first- 
mentioned, viz. What? For Whom? and For what? 

f. What? The answer is contained in the Title-page. It 
belongs to the class of didactic Works. Consequently, those 
who neither wish instruction for themselves, nor assistance in 
instructing others, have no interest in its contents. Sis Sus, 
sis Divus : Sum Caltha, et non tihi spiro ! 

II. For Whom? Generally, for as many in all classes as 
wish for aid in disciplining their minds to habits of reflec- 
tion — for all who, desirous of building up a manly character 
in the Ught of distinct consciousness, are content to study the 
principles of moral Architecture on the several grounds of 
prudence, morality and religion. And lastly, for all who feel 
an interest in the Position, I have undertaken to defend — this, 
namely, that the Christian Faith {in which I include every 



Iviii AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

article of belief and doctrine professed by the first Reformers 
in common) is the Perfection of Human Intelligence: 
an int€ rest sufficiently strong to ensure a patient attention to 
the arguments brought in its support. 

But if I am to mention any particular class or description of 
Readers, that were prominent in my thoughts during the com- 
position of the volume, my Reply must be : that it was espe- 
cially designed for the studious Young at the close of their 
education or on their first entrance into the duties of manhood 
and the rights of self-government. And of these, again, in 
thought and wish I destined the work ( the latter and larger 
portion, at least) yet more particularly to Students intended 
for the Ministry ; first^ as in duty bound, to the members of 
our two Universities : secondly^ ( but only in respect of this 
mental precedency second) to all alike of whatever name, 
who have dedicated their future lives to the cultivation of 
their Race, as Pastors, Preachers, Missionaries, or instructors 
of Youth. 

III. For What } The Worth of the Author is estimated by 
the ends, the attainment of which he proposed to himself by the 
particular work : while the Value of the Work depends on its 
fitness, as the Means. The Objects of the present volume 
are the following, arranged in the order of their comparative 
importance. 

1. To direct the Reader's attention to the value of the Sci- 
ence of Words, their use and abuse (see Note 4) and the in- 
calculable advantages attached to the habit of using them ap- 
propriately, and with a distinct knowledge of their primary, 
derivative, and metaphorical senses. And in furtherance of 
this Object I have neglected no occasion of enforcing the max- 
im, that to expose a sophism and to detect the equivocal or 
double meaning of a word is, in the great majority of cases, 
one and the same thing. Home Tooke entitled his celebrated 



PREFACE. liX 

work, Eirsa ifrs^osvra, Winged Words : or Language, not only 
the Vehicle of Thought but the Wheels. With my convic- 
tions and views, for s-nsa. I should substitute X0701, i. e. Words se- 
lect amd determinate, ^ud for -Trrs^oevTa, ^wovrsg, i.e. living Words. 
The Wheels of the intellect I admit them to be ; but such as 
Ezekiel beheld in " the visions of God" as he sate among the 
Captives by the river of Chebar. " Whithersoever the Spirit 
was to go, the Wheels went, and thither was their Spirit to 
go : for the Spirit of the living creature was in the wheels al- 
so:' 

2. To establish the distinct characters of Prudence, Moral- 
ity, and Religion : and to impress the conviction, that though 
the second requires the first, and the third contains and sup- 
poses both the former ; yet still Moral Goodness is other and 
more than prudence, or the Principle of Expediency ; and 
higher than Morality. For this distinction the better Schools 
even of Pagan Philosophy contended. [See pp. 14 — 15.) 

3. To substantiate and set forth at large the momentous dis- 
tinction between Reason and Understanding. Whatever is 
atchievable by the Understanding for the purposes of world- 
ly interest, private or public, has in the present age been pur- 
sued with an activity and a success beyond all former experi- 
ence, and to an extent which equally demands my admiration 
and excites my wonder. But likewise it is, and long has been, 
my conviction, that in no age since the first dawning of Sci- 
ence and Philosophy in this Island have the Truths, Interests, 
and studies that especially belong to the Reason, contempla- 
tive or practical, sunk into such utter neglect, not to say con- 
tempt, as during the last century. It is therefore one main 
Object of this Volume to establish the position, that whoever 
transfers to the Understanding the primacy due to the Reason, 
loses the one and spoils the other. 

4. To exhibit a full and consistent Scheme of the Christian 



Ix AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Dispensation, and more largely of all the jyecuUar doctrines of 
the Christian Faith; and to answer all the Objections to the 
same, that do not originate in a corrupt Will rather than er- 
ring Judgement ; and to do this in a manner intelligible for all 
who, possessing the ordinary advantages of education, do in 
good earnest desire to form their religious creed in the light 
of their own convictions, and to have a reason for the faith 
which they profess. There are indeed Mysteries, in evidence 
of which no reasons can be brought. But it has been my en- 
deavour to show, that the true solution of this problem is, that 
these Mysteries are Reason, Reason in its highest form of 
Self-affirmation. 

Such are the special Objects of these " Aids to Reflection." 
Concerning the general character of the work, let me be per- 
mitted to add the few following sentences. St. Augustine, in 
one of his Sermons, discoursing on a high point of Theology, 
tell his auditors^ — Sic accipite, ut mercamini intelligere. Fides 
enim debet prsecedere intellectum, ut sit intellectus fidei praem- 
ium*. Now without a certain portion of gratuitous and (as it 
were ) experimentative faith in the Writer, a Reader will scarce- 
ly give that degree of continued attention, without which no 
didactic Work worth reading can be read to any wise or pro- 
fitable purpose. In this sense, therefore, and to this extent 
every Author, who is competent to the office he has underta- 
ken, may without arrogance repeat St. Augustine's words in 
his own right, and advance a similar claim on similar grounds. 
But I venture no farther than to imitate the sentiment at a 
humble distance, by avowing my belief that He, who seeks 
instruction in the following pages, will not fail to find enter- 
tainment likewise ; but that whoever seeks entertainment only 
will find neither. 



^Translation. »So receive this, that you may desefve to uiiderstaiul it. 
For tlie faith ought to precede the Underelaiidhig, so that the Understand 
iiig may be the rcwani of the faith. 



PREFACE. Ixi 

Reader ! — ^You have been bred in a land abounding with 
men, able in arts, learning, and knowledges manifold, this man 
in one, this in another, few in many, none in all. But there 
is one art, of which every man should be master, the art of 
REFLECTION. If you are not ajhinking man, to what purpose 
are you a man at all ? In like manner, there is one knowl- 
edge, which it is every man's interest and duty to acquire, 
namely, self-knowledge : or to what end was man alone, of 
all animals, indued by the Creator with the faculty of self -con- 
sciousness 9 Truly said the Pagan moralist, E coelo descen- 
di, rvwSi SsauTov. 

But you are likewise born in a christian land : and Reve- 
lation has provided for you new subjects for reflection, and 
new treasures of knowledge, never to be unlocked by him 
who remains self-ignorant. Self-knowledge is the key to this 
casket ; and by reflection alone can it be obtained. Reflect 
on your own thoughts, actions, circumstances, and — which will 
be of especial aid to you in forming a habit of reflection — ac- 
custom yourself to reflect on the words you use, hear, or read, 
their birth, derivation, and history. For if words are not 
things, they are living powers, by which the things of most 
importance to mankind are actuated, combined, and humani- 
zed. Finally, by reflection you may draw from the fleeting 
facts of your worldly trade, art, or profession, a science perma- 
nent as your immortal soul ; and make even these subsidiary 
and preparative to the reception of spiritual truth, "doing as 
the dyers do, who having first dipt their silks in colours of less 
value, then give them the last tincture of crimson in grain." 

S. T. COLERIDGE. 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



INTRODUCTORY APHORI8M8. 



MARINUS. 

Omnis divinoe atqiie humanse eriiditionis elementa tria, Nosse, Velle, 
Posse: quorum principium unum Mens, sive Spiritus; cujus Ocvlus est 
Ratio ; euilumen piaebet Deus. Vita di G. B. Vico, p. 50. 



AIDS 

TO 

REFLECTION. 



TNTRODUCTOKY APHORT^iMS. 

APHORISM I. F.mTOR. 

It is the prerogative of Genius to produce novel impressions 
from familiar objects : and seldom can philosophic genius be 
more usefully employed than in thus rescuing admitted truths 
from the neglect caused by the very circumstance of their 
universal admission. Extremes meet. Truths, of all others 
the most aw^ful and interesting, are too often considered as so 
true, that they lose all the power of truth, and lie bed-ridden 
in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most des- 
pised and exploded errors. 

APHORISM II. EDITOR. 

There is one sure way of giving freshness and importance 

to the most common-place maxims — that of reflecting on them 

in direct reference to our own state and conduct, to our own 

past and future being. 

APHORISM III. EDITOR. 

To restore a common-place truth to its first uncommon lus- 
tre, you need only translate it into action. But to do this, 
you must have reflected on its truth. 

APHORISM IV. LEIGHTO.N. 

' It is the advice of the wise man, ' Dwell at home,' or, with 
^yourself; and though there are very few that do this, yet it 
'is surprising that the greatest part of mankind cannot be 

1 



2 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

* prevailed upon, at least to visit themselves sometimes ; but, 

* according to the saying of the wise Solomon, The eyes of 
' the fool are in the ends of the earth,"* 

A reflecting mind, says an ancient writer, is the spring and 
source of every good thing. (^ Omnis boni principium intel- 
lectus cogitabundus.^) It is at once the disgrace and the mis- 
ery of men, that they live without fore-thought. Suppose 
yourself fronting a glass mirror. Now what the Objects be- 
hind you are to their images at the same apparent distance be- 
fore you, such is Reflection to Fore-thought. As a man with- 
out Fore-thought scarcely deserves the name of a man, so 
Fore-thought without Reflection is but a metaphorical phrase 
for the instinct of a beast. ed. 

APHORISM V. EDITOR. 

As a fruit-tree is more valuable than any one of its fruits 
singly, or even than all its fruits of a single season, so the 
noblest object of reflection is the mind itself, by which we re- 
flect. 

And as the blossoms, the green, and the ripe fruit, of an 
orange-rtree are more beautiful to behold when on the tree and 
seen as one with it, than the same growth detached and seen 
successively, after their importation into another country and 
different clime ; so is it with the manifold objects of reflection, 
when they are considered principally in reference to the re- 
flective power, and as part and parcel of the same. No ob- 
ject, of whatever value our passions may represent it, but be- 
comes foreign to us, as soon as it is altogether unconnected 
with our intellectual, moral, and spiritual life. To be ours, it 
must be referred to the mind either as motive, or consequence, 
or symptom. 

APHORISM VI. LEIGKTON. 

He who teaches men the principles and precepts of spiritual 
wisdom, before their minds are called off" from foreign objects, 
and turned inward upon themselves, might as well write his 
instructions, as the sybil wrote her prophecies, on the loose 
leaves of trees, and commit them to the mercy of the incon- 
stant winds. 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS. 3 

APHORISM VIL EDITOR. 

In order to learn, we must attend : in order to profit by what 
we have learnt, we must think-^u e. reflect. He only thinks 
who reflects* 

APHORISM VIII. L, AND ED. 

It is a matter of great difficulty, and requires no ordinary 
skill and address, to fix the attention of men ( especially of 
young men[l] ) on the world within them, to induce them to 
study the processes and superintend the works which they 
are themselves carrying on in their own minds : in short, to 
awaken in them both the faculty of thought [2] and the in- 
clination to exercise it. For alas ! the largest part of mankind 
are nowhere greater strangers than at home. 

APHORISM IX. EDiTott. 

Life is the one universal soul, which by virtue of the en- 
livening Breath, and the informing Word, all organized bod- 
ies have in common, each after its kind[S]. This, therefore, 
all animals possess, and man as an animal. But, in addition 
to this, God transfused into man a higher gift, and specially 
imbreathed : — even a living ( that is, self-subsisting ) soul, a 
soul having its life in itself. " And man became a living soul." 
He did not merely possess it, he became it. It was his proper 
being, his truest self, the man in the man. None then, not 
one of human kind, so poor and destitute, but there is provi- 
ded for him, even in his present state, a house not built with 
hands. Aye, and spite of the philosophy ( falsely so called ) 
whith mistakes the causes, the conditions, and the occasions 
of our becoming conscious of certain truths and realities for 
the truths and realities themselves— a house gloriously fur- 
nished. Nothing is wanted but the eye, which is the light of 
this house, the light which is the eye of this soul. This see- 
ing light, this enlightening eye, is Reflection* It is more, in- 
deed, than is ordinarily meant by that word ; but is what a 
Christian ought to mean by it, and to know too, whence it 
first came, and still continues to come — of what light even 
this light is but a reflection. This, too, is thought ; and all 



4 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

thought is but unthinking that does not flow out of this, or tend 
towards it. 

APHORISM X. EDITOR. 

Self-superintendence ! that any thing should overlook itself! 
Is not this a paradox, and hard to understand ? It is, indeed, 
difficult, and to the imbruted sensualist a direct contradiction : 
and yet most truly does the poet exclaim, 

Unless above himself he can 

Erect himself, how mean a thing is man ! 

APHORISM XI. EDITOR. 

An hour of solitude passed in sincere and earnest prayer, 
or the conflict with, and conquest over, a single passion or 
" subtle bosom sin," will teach us more of thought, will more 
effectually awaken the faculty, and form the habit, of reflec- 
tion, than a year's study in the schools without them. 

APHORISM XII. EDITOR. 

In a world, whose opinions are drawn from outside shows, 
many things may be paradoxical, ( that is, contrary to the 
common notion ) and nevertheless true : nay, because they are 
true. How should it be otherwise, as long as the imagination 
of the Worldling is wholly occupied by surfaces, while the 
Christian's thoughts are fixed on the substance, that which is 
and abides, and which, because it is the substance [4], the 
outward senses cannot recognize. Tertullian had good reason 
for his assertion, that the simplest Christian ( if indeed a Chris- 
tian ) knows more than the most accomplished irreligious phi- 
losopher. 

COMMENT. 

Let it not, however, be forgotten, that the powers of the 
understanding and the intellectual graces are precious gifts of 
God ; and that every Christian, according to the opportunities 
vouchsafed to him, is bound to cultivate the one and to ac- 
quire the other. Indeed, he is scarcely a Christian who wil- 
fully neglects so to do. What says the apostle ? Add to your 
faith knowledge, and to knowledge manly energy, ( apsrriv ) for 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS. O 

this is the proper rendering, and not virtue, at least in the 
present and ordinary acceptation of the word [5]. 

APHORISM XIII. EDITOR. 

Never yet did there exist a full faith in the Divine Word 
( by whom light, as well as immortality, was brought into the 
world, ) which did not expand the intellect, while it purified 
the heart : which did not multiply the aims and objects of the 
understanding, while it fixed and simpUfied those of the de- 
sires and passions[6]. 

COMMENT. 

If acquiesence without insight ; if warmth without light ; if 
an immunity from doubt, given and guaranteed by a resolute 
ignorance ; if the habit of taking for granted the words of a 
catechism, remembered or forgotten ; if a mere sensation of 
positiveness substituted — I will not say for the sense of cer- 
tainty, but — for that calm assurance, the very means and 
conditions of which it supersedes ; if a belief that seeks the 
darkness, and yet strikes no root, immoveable as the limpet 
from the rock, and, like the limpet, fixed there by mere force 
of adhesion ; — if these suffice to make men Christians, in 
what sense could the apostle affirm that believers receive, not 
indeed worldly wisdom, that comes to nought, but the wisdom 
of God, that we might know and comprehend the things that 
are freely given to us of God ? On what grounds could he 
denounce the sincerest fervor of spirit as defective, where it 
does not likewise bring forth fruits in the understanding ^ 

APHORISM XIV. EDITOR. 

In our present state, it is little less than imposssible that the 
affections should be kept constant to an object which gives no 
employment to the understanding, and yet cannot be made 
manifest to the senses. The exercise of th6 reasoning and 
reflecting powers, increasing insight, and enlarging views, are 
requisite tb ke'ep alive the substantial faith in the heart. 

APHORISM XV. EDITOR. 

In the state of perfection, perhaps, all other faculties may 



AIDS TO REFLECTION^ 



be swallowed up in love, or superseded by immediate vision ; 
but it is on the wings of the cherubim, i. e. ( according to the 
interpretation of the ancient Hebrew doctors,) the intellectual 
powei's and energies, that we must first be borne up to the 
"pure empyrean." It must be seraphs, and not the hearts of 
imperfect mortals, that can burn unfuelled and self-fed. Give 
me understanding, (is the prayer of the Royal Psalmist) and 
I shall observe thy law with my whole heart. Thy law is ex- 
ceeding broad^-thact iSj comprehensive, pregnant, containing 
far more than the apparent import of the words on a first pe- 
rusal. It is my meditation all the day* 

Comment. 
It is worthy of especid observation, that the Scriptures are 
distinguished from all other writings pretending to inspiration, 
by the strong and frequent recommendations of knowledge, 
and a spirit of inquiry. Without reflection, it is evident that 
neither the one can be acquired nor the other exercised. 

APHORISM XVI. EDITOR. 

The word rational has been strangely abused of late times. 
This must not, however, disincline us to the weighty conside- 
ration, that thoughtfulness, and a desire to rest all our con- 
victions On grounds of right reason, are inseparable from the 
character of a Christian. 

APHORISM XVII. EDITOR* 

A reflecting mind is not a floWer that grows wild, or comes 

up of its own accord. The difficulty is indeed greater than 

many, who mistake quick recollection for thought, are dispo^ 

sed to admit ; but how much less than it would be, had we 

not been borri and bred in a Christian and Protestant land, the 

fewest of Us are sufficiently aware. Truly may we, and 

thankfully ought we to exclaim with the Psalmist : The entrance 

of thy Avords giveth light ; it giveth understanding even to the 

simple. 

APHORISM XVIIL editor. 

Examine the journals of zealous missionaries, I mil not 
say among the Hottentots or Etjqiiimaux, but in the high^ 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS. ^ 

Iv civilized, though fearfully uncultivated, inhabitants of an- 
cient India. How often, and how feelingly, do they de- 
scribe the difficulty of rendering the simplest chain ot thought 
intelligible to the ordinary natives, the rapid exhaustion of 
their whole power of attention, and with what distressful ef- 
fort it is exerted while it lasts ! Yet it is among these that 
the hideous practices of self-torture chiefly prevail. O if tol- 
ly were no easier than wisdom, it being often so very much 
more grievous, how certainly might these unhappy slaves of 
superstition be converted to Christianity! But, alas! to 
swing by hooks passed through the back, or to walk m shoes 
with nails of iron pointed upwards through the soles— all this 
is so much less difficult, demands so much less exertion ot the 
will than to reflect, and by reflection to gain knowledge and 
tranquility 1 

COMMENT. 

It is not true, that ignorant persons have no notion of the 
advantages of truth and knowledge. They confess, they 
see and bear witness to these advantages in the conduct, the 
immunities, and the superior powers of the possessors. Were 
they attainable by pilgrimages the most toilsome, pr penances 
the most painful, we should assuredly have as many pilgrims 
and self-tormentors in the service of true religion, as now ex- 
ist under the tyranny pf papal or Brahman superstition. 

APHORISM XIX. EDITOR. 

In countries enlightened by the gospel, however, the most 
formidable and (it is to be feared) the most frequent impedi- 
ment to men's turning the mind inward upon themselves 
is that tliey are afraid of what they shall find there. There 
is an aching hollowness in the bospm, a dark cold speck at the 
heart, an obscure and boding sense of a somewhat, that must 
be kept out of sight of the conscience ; some secret bdger, 
whom they can neither resolve to eject of retain[7] , 

COMMENT. 

Few are so obdurate, few have sufficient strength of char- 
acter, to be able to draw forth an evil tendency or immoral 



8 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

practice into distinct consmousiuss^ without bringing it in the 
same moment before an awaking conscience. But for this 
very reason it becomes a duty of conscience to form the mind 
to a habit of distinct consciousness. An unreflecting Chris- 
tian walks in twilight among snares and pitfalls ! He entreats 
the heavenly Father not to lead him into temptation, and yet 
places himself on the very edge of it, because he will not kin- 
dle the torch which his Father had given into his hands, as a 
means of prevention, and lest he should pray too late. 

APHORISM XX KDiToR. 

Among the various undertakings of men, can there be men- 
tioiied one more important, can there be conceived one more 
sublime, than an intention to form the human mind anew after 
the DIVINE IMAGE ? The very intention, if it be sincere, 
is a ray of its dawning. 

The .requisites for the execution of this high intent may be 
comprised under three heads ; the prudential, the moral, and 
the spiritual : 

APHORISM XXI. EDITOR. 

First, PRUDENCE — Teligious prudence, I mean ; a prudence 
in the service of Religion. What this is, will be best explain- 
ed by its effects and operations. It consists then in the pre- 
vention or abatement of hinderances and distractions ; and 
consequently in avoiding, or removing, all such circumstancjes 
as, by diverting the attention of the w^orkman, retard the pro- 
gress and hazard the safety of the w^ork. It is likewise (we 
deny not) a part of this unworldly prudence, to place our- 
selves as much and as often as it is in our power so to do, in 
circumstances directly favourable to our great design ; and to 
avail ourselves of all the positive helps and furtherances which 
these circumstances afford. But neither dare we, as Chris- 
tians, forget whose and under what dominion the things are, 
quae nos drcwnstant^ i. e. that stand around us. We are to 
remember, that it is the World that constitutes our outward 
circumstances ; that in the form of the World, which is ever- 
more at variance with the Divine Form (or idea) they are 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS, V 

cast and moulded ; and that of the means and measures which 
prudence requires in the forming anew of the Divine Image 
in the soul, the far greater number suppose the World at en- 
mity with our design. We aie to avoid its snares, to repel its 
attacks, to suspect its aids and succours, and even when com- 
pelled to receive them as allies within our trenches, yet to 
commit the outworks alone to their charge, and to keep tliem 
at a jealous distance from the citadel. The powers of the 
world are often christened, but seldom christianized. They 
are but proselytes of the outer gate : or, like the Saxons of 
old, enter the land as auxiliaries, and remain in it as conquer- 
ors and lords. 

APHORISM XXII. EDITOR. 

The rules of prudence in general, like the laws of the stone 
tables, are for the most part prohibitive. Thou shalt not is 
their characteristic formula : and it is an especial part of Chris- 
tian prudence that it should be so. Nor would it be difficult 
to bring under this head, all the social obligations that arise 
out of the lelations of the present life, which the sensual un- 
derstanding ( TO (ppcvrjfjLa T7)g 2a^og, Romans viii, 6,) is of itself 
able to discover, and the performance of which, under favour- 
able worldly circumstances, the merest worldly self-interest, 
without love or faith, is sufficient to enforce ; but which 
Christian prudence enlivens by a higher principle, and renders 
symbolic and sacramental, (Ephesiansv, 32.) 

COMMENT, 

This then comprising the prudentials of religion, comes 
first under consideration. Next follow the moral Requisites. 
If in the first we have the shrine smd frame-work for that Di- 
vine Image, into w^hich the Wordly -human is to be transform- 
ed ; in the second, we are to bring out the Portrait itself — 
the distinct features of its countenance, as a sojourn6r among 
men ; its benign aspect turned towards its fellow-pilgrims, the 
extended arm, and the hand that blesseth and healeth, 

APHORISM XXIII. EDITOR, 

The outward service (0poo'x£»a[8] ) of ancient religion, the 

2 



10 AIDS TO EEFLECTION. 

rites, ceremonies and ceremonial vestments of the old law, 
had morality for their substance. They were the letter^ of 
which morality was the spirit ; the enigma, of which morality 
was the meaning. But morality itself is the service and cere- 
monial (cultus exterior, ^^rjtfxsia ) of the Christian religion. The 
scheme of grace and truth that became [9) through Jesus 
Christ, the faith that looks\\0} down into the perfect law of 
liberty, has " light for its garment ;" its very " robe is right- 



COMMENT. 

Herein the Apostle places the pre-eminency, the peculiar 
and distinguishing excellence, of the Christian religion. The 
ritual is of the same kind, (ofAostf/ov) though not of the same 
order, with the religion itself — not arbitrary or conventional, 
as types and hieroglyphics are in relation to the things express- 
ed by them; but inseparable, consubstantiated (as it were,) 
and partaking therefore of the same life, permanence, and in- 
trinsic worth with its spirit and principle. 

APHORISM XXIV. EDITOR. 

Morality is the body, of which the faith in Christ is the 
soul — so far indeed its earthly body, as it is adapted to its state 
of warfare on earth, and the appointed form and instrument of 
its communion with the present world ; yet not " terrestrial," 
nor of the world, but a celestial body, and capable of being 
transfigured from glory to glory, in accordance with the vary- 
ing circumstances and outward relations of its moving and in- 
forming spirit. 

APHORISM XXV. EDITOR. 

Woe to the man, who will believe neither power, freedom, 
nor morality ; because he no where finds either entire, or un- 
mixed with sin, thraldom and infirmity. In the natural and 
intellectual lealms, we distinguish what we cannot separate ; 
and in the moral world, we must distinguish in order to sepa- 
rate. Yea, in the clear distinction of good from evil the pro- 
cess of separation commences. 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS. 11 

COMMENT. 

It was customary with religious men in former times, to 
make a rule of taking every morning some text or aphorism [11] 
for their occasional meditation during the day, and thus to fill 
up the intervals of their attention to business. I do not point 
it out for imitation, as knowing too well, how apt these self- 
imposed rules are to degenerate into superstition or hoUow- 
ness : or I would have recommended the following as the first 
exercise. 

APHORISM XXVI. EDITOR. 

It is a dull and obtuse mind, that must divide in order to 
distinguish ; but it is a still worse, that distinguishes in order 
to divide. In the former, we may contemplate the source of 
superstition and [12] idolatry ; in the latter, of schism, heresy 
[13], and a seditious and sectarian spirit [14]. 

APHORISM XXVII. EDITOR. 

Exclusive of the abstract scie,nces, the largest and worthiest 
portion of our knowledge consists of aphorisms: and the 
greatest and best of men is but an aphorism, 

APHORISM XXVIII. EDITOR. 

On the prudential influence which the fear or foresight of 
the consequences of his actions, in respect of his own loss or 
gain, may exert on a newly converted Believer. 

Precautionary Remark. — We meddle not with the dis- 
pute respecting conversion, whether, and in what sense, neces- 
sary in all Christians. It is sufficient for our purpose, that a 
very large number of men, even in Christian countries weet/, to 
be converted, and that not a few, we trust, have been. The 
tenet becomes fanatical and dangerous, only when rare and ex- 
traordinary exceptions are made to be the general rule ; — when 
what was vouchsafed to the apostle of the Gentiles by espe- 
cial grace, and for an especial purpose, viz. a conversion [15] 
begun and completed in the same moment, is demanded or ex- 
pected of all men, as a necessary sign and pledge of their 
election. Late observations have shown, that under many 



13 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

circumstances the magnetic needle, even after the disturbing 
influence has been removed, will keep wavering, and require 
many days before it points aright, and remains steady to the 
pole. So is it ordinarily with the soul, after it has begun to 
free itself from the disturbing forces of the flesh and the world 
and to convert [16] itself towards God. 

APHORISM XXIX. EDITOR. 

Awakened by the cock-crow, ( a sermon, a calamity, a sick 
bed, or a providential escape) the Christian pilgrim sets out in 
the morning twilight, while yet the truth ( the vofiog TsXeiog o Tr,g 
s'KsvGs^ias) is below the horizon. Certain necessary conse- 
quences of his past life and his present undertaking will be 
seen by the refraction of its light : more will be apprehended 
and conjectured. The phantasms, that had predominated du- 
ring the hours of darkness, are still busy. No longer present 
as Forms, they will yet exist as moulding and formative Mo- 
tions in the Pilgrim's soul. The Dream of the past night will 
transfer its shapes to the objects in the distance, while the ob- 
jects give outwardness and reality to the shapings of the 
Dream. The fears inspired by long habits of selfishness and 
self-seeking cunning, though now purifying into that fear which 
is the beginning of wisdom, and ordained to be our guide and 
safeguard, till the sun of love, the perfect law of liberty, is 
fully arisen — these fears will set the fancy at work, and haply, 
for a time transform the mists of dim and imperfect knowledge 
into determinate superstitions. But in either case, whether 
seen clearly or dimly, whether beheld or only imagined, the 
consequences contemplated in their bearings on the individual's 
inherent[17] desire of happiness and dread of pain become 
motives : and ( unless all distinction in the words be done away 
with, and either prudence or virtue be reduced to a superflu- 
ous synonyme, a redundancy in all the languages of the civili- 
zed world,) these motives, and the acts and forbearances di- 
rectly proceeding from them, fall under the head of prudence, 
as belonging to one or other of its three very distinct species. 
It may be a prudence, that stands in opposition to a higher mo- 
ral life, and tends to preclude it, and to prevent the soul from 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS. 13 

ever arriving at the hatred of sin for its own exceeding sinful- 
ness (Rom. vii. 13J : and this is an evil prudence. Or it 
inajr be a neutral prudence, not incompatible with spiritual 
growth : and to this we may, with especial propriety, apply the 
words of our lord, " What is not against us is for us." It is 
therefore an innocent, and (being such) a proper and com- 

MENDABI.E PRUDENCE. 

Or it may lead and be subservient to a higher principle than 
itself. The mind and conscience of the individual may be re- 
conciled to it, in the foreknowledge of the higher principle, 
and with a yearning towards it that implies a foretaste of fu- 
ture freedom. The enfeebled convalescent is reconciled to his 
crutches, and thankfully makes use of them, not only because 
they are necessary for his immediate support, but likewise, be- 
cause they are the means and conditions of exercise ; and by 
exercise of establishing, gradatim paulatim^ that strength, 
flexibility, and almost spontaneous obedience of the muscles, 
which the idea and cheering presentiment of health hold out 
to him. He finds their value in their present necessity, and 
their worth as they are the instruments of finally superseding 
it. This is a faithful, a wise prudence, having indeed, its 
birth-place in the world, and the wisdom of this world for its 
Father; but naturalized in a better land, and having the Wis- 
dom from above for its Sponsor and Spiritual Parent. To steal 
a dropt feather from the spicy nest of the Phoinix, (the fond 
humour, I mean, of the mystic divines and allegorizers of Ho- 
ly Writ) it is the son of Terah from Ur of the Chaldees, who 
gives a tithe of all to the King of Righteousness, without fa- 
ther, without mother, without descent, (No,aos aurovo/xo^,) and 
receives a blessing on the remainder. 

Lastly, there is a prudence that co-exists with morality, as 
morality co-exists with the spiritual life : a prudence that is 
the organ of both, as the understanding is to the reason and 
the will, or as the lungs are to the heart and brain. This is a 
HOLY prudence, the steward faithful and discreet ( oixovojuiog "ri^og 
xai (ppov«|xoj, Luke xii. 42), the 'eldest servant' in the family of 
faith, born in the house^ and ' made the ruler over his lord's 
household.' 



14 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Let not then, I entreat you, my purpose be misunderstood ; 
as if, in distinguishing virtue from prudence, I wished to di- 
vide the one from the other. True morality is hostile to that 
prudence only, which is preclusive of true morality. The 
teacher who subordinates prudence to virtue, cannot be sup- 
posed to dispense with it ; and he who teaches the proper con- 
nexion of the one with the other, does not depreciate the low- 
er in any sense ; while by making it a link of the same chain 
with the higher, and receiving the same influence, he raises it. 

In Greek, Logos ( Anglice, Word), means likewise the Un- 
derstanding. If the same idiom existed in our language, only 
with the substitution of the practical for the intellectual, I 
would say: the word[18] ft. e. Practical Rectitude,) has 
Virtue (or Morality) for its Consonants and Prudence for the 
Vowels. Though the former can scarcely be pronounced with- 
out the latter, yet we ought to acquaint ourselves with their 
true nature and force. But this we can do only by a distinct 
knowledge of the latter, that is, what they are of themselves, 
and sounded separately from the consonants. In like manner, 
to understand aright what morality is, we must first learn what 
prudence is, and what acts and obligations are prudential ; 
and having removed these to a class of their own, we shall 
find it comparatively easy to determine what acts and duties 
belong to morality. 

APHORISM XXX. EDITOR. 

What the duties of morality are, the apostle instructs the 
believer in full, reducing them under two heads : negative, to 
keep himself pure from the w^orld ; and positive, beneficence 
with sympathy and loving-kindness, i. e. love of his fellow-men 
( his kind ) as himself. 

APHORISM XXXI. EDITOR. 

Last and highest, come the spiritual, comprising all the 
truths, acts and duties that have an especial reference to the 
Timeless, the Permanent, the Eternal ; to the sincere love of 
the True, as truth, of the Good, as good : and of God as both 
in one. It comprehends tlie whole ascent from uprightness 



INTRODUCTORY APHORISMS. 15 

( morality, virtue, inward rectitude^ to godlikeness^ with aW 
the acts, exercises, and disciplines of mind, will and affection, 
that are requisite or conducive to the great design of our re- 
demption from the form of the evil one, and of our second 
creation or birth in the divine Image [19]. 

APHORISM XXXII. EDITOR. 

It may be an additional aid to reflection, to distinguish the 
three kinds severally, according to the faculty to which each 
corresponds, the faculty or part of our human nature which 
is more particularly its organ. Thus : the prudential corres- 
ponds to the sense and the understanding ; the moral to the 
heart and the conscience ; the spiritual to the will and tho 
reason, i. e. to the finite will reduced to harmony with, and in 
subordination to, the reason, as a ray from that true light 
which is both reason and will, universal reason, and will abso- 
lute. 

I have now, I trust, effected the two purposes of this intro- 
ductory chapter, viz : 

1. That of explaining the true nature and evincing the ne- 
cessity of reflection in the constitution of a Christian charac- 
ter. 

2. That of assigning my reasons why, having proposed to 
select from Archbishop Leighton's Works the most striking 
prudential, moral, and spiritual maxims, I have separated the 
prudential from the two following, and interpolated the ex- 
tracts with mementos of my own. 



PRUDENTIAL APHORISMS. 



APHORISM I. L. AND ED. 

You will not be offended, nor think I intend to insult you, 
if once and again, with great earnestness and sincerity, I wish 
you and myself a sound and serious temper of mind ; for, if 
we may represent things as they really are, very few men are 
possessed of so valuable a blessing. The far greater part of 
them are intoxicated either with the pleasures or the caies of 
this world ; they stagger about with a tottering and unstable 
pace, and, as Solomon expresses it. The labour of the foolish 
wearieth every one of them ; because he knoweth not how to 
go to the city : Eccl. x. 15 : — the heavenly city, and the vision 
of peace, which very few have a just notion of, or are at 
pains to seek after. Nay, they know not what it is they are 
seeking. They flutter from one object to another, and live at 
hazard. They have no certain harbour in view, nor direct 
their course by any fixed star. But to him that knoweth not 
the port to which he is bound, no wind can be favourable ; 
neither can he who has not yet determined at what mark he 
is to shoot, direct his arrow aright. 

I assert, then, that there is a proper object to aim at ; and 
if this object be meant by the term happiness, (though I think 
that not the most appropriate term for a state, the perfection 
of which consists in the exclusion of all hap (i. e. chance,) 
and should greatly prefer the Socratic Eupraxy^ as expressing 
the union of well-being and well, ) I assert that there is such 
a thing as human happiness. This is indeed implied in the 
belief of an infinitely wise Author of our being. 

APHORISM II. LEIGHTON. 

The whole human race must have been created in misery, 
and exposed to unavoidable torments, from which they could 

3 



18 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

never have been relieved, had they been formed not only ca- 
pable of a good, quite unattainable and altogether without 
their reach, but also with strong and restless desires towards 
that impossible good. Now, as this is by no means to be ad- 
mitted, there must necessarily be some full, permanent, and, 
satisfying good, that may be attained by man, and in the pos- 
session of which he must be truly happy. 

APHORISM III. LEIGHTON. 

What this is, the Bible alone shows clearly and certainly, 
and points out the way that leads to the attainment of it. This 
is that which prevailed with St. Augustine to study the Scrip- 
tures, and engaged his affection to them. 'In Cicero, and 
' Plato, and other such writers,' says he, ' I meet with many 

* things acutely said, and things that excite a certain warmth 
' of emotion, but in none of them do I find these words. Come 

* unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will 
^ give you resf[20]. 

APHORISM IV. LEIGHTON. 

It is the wisdom of mankind to know God, and their indis- 
pensable duty to worship Him. Without this, men of the 
brightest parts and greatest learning seem to be born with ex- 
cellent talents only to make themselves miserable ; and accor- 
ding to the expression of the wisest of kings. He that increa- 
seth knowledge increaseth sorrow, Eccl. i. 18. We must, 
therefore, first of all, consider this as a sure and settled point, 
that rehgion is the sole foundation of human peace and felici- 
ty. This, even the profane scoffers at religion are, in some 
sort, obliged to own, though much against their will, even 
while they are pointing their wit against it ; for nothing is 
more commonly to be heard from them, than that the whole 
doctrine of religion was invented by some wise men, to en- 
courage the practice of justice and virtue through the world. 
Surely then, religion, whatever else may be said of it, must 
be a matter of the highest value, since it is found necessary 
to secure advantages of so very great importance. But, in 
the meantime, how unhappy is the case of integrity and vir- 



PRUDENTIAL APHORISMS. 



19 



tue, if what they want to support them is merely fictitious, 
and they cannot keep their ground but by means of a mon- 
strous forgery ! But far be it from us to entertain such an ab- 
surdity ! For the first rule of righteousness cannot be other- 
wise than right, nor is there any thing more nearly aUied or 
more friendly to virtue, than truth. 

APHORISM V. LEIGHTON. 

And it is, indeed, very plain, that if it were possible en- 
tirely to dissolve all the bonds and ties of religion, yet, that 
it should be so, would certainly be the interest of none but 
the worst and most abandoned part of mankind. All the good 
and wise, if the matter was freely left to their choice, would 
rather have the world governed by the Supreme and Most 
Perfect Being, mankind subjected to His just and righteous 
laws, and all the affairs of men superintended by His watch- 
ful providence, than that it should be otherwise. Nor do 
they believe the doctrines of religion with aversion or any 
sort of reluctancy, but embrace them with pleasure, and are 
excessively glad to find them true. So that, if it was possi- 
ble, to abolish them entirely, and any person, out of mere 
good-will to them, should attempt to do it, they would look 
upon the favour as highly prejudicial to their interest, and 
think his good-will more hurtful than the keenest hatred. 
Nor would any one, in his wits, choose to live in the world, at 
large, and without any sort of government, more than he 
would think it eligible to be put on board a ship without a 
helm or pilot, and, in this condition, to be tossed amidst rocks 
and quicksands. On the other hand, can any thing give grea- 
ter consolation, or more substantial joy[21], than to be firmly 
persuaded, not only that there is an infinitely good and wise 
Being, but also that this Being preserves and continually gov- 
erns the universe which Himself has framed, and holds the 
reins of all things in His powerful hand ; that He is our fa- 
ther, that we and all our interests are His constant concern ; 
and that, after we have sojourned a short while here below, 
we shall be again taken into His immediate presence ? Or 



20 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

can this wretched life be attended with any sort of satisfaction, 
if it is divested of this divine faith, and bereaved of such a 
blessed hope ? 

APHORISM VI. EDITOR. 

Felicity, in its proper sense, is but another word for fortu- 
nateness, or happiness ; and I can see no advantage in the im- 
proper use of words, when proper terms are to be found, but, 
on the contrary, much mischief. For, by familiarizing the 
mind to equivocal expressions, that is, such as may be taken 
in two or more different meanings, we introduce confusion of 
thought, and furnish the sophist with his best and handiest 
tools. For the juggle of sophistry consists, for the greater 
part, in using a word in one sense in the premise, and in anoth- 
er sense in the conclusion. We should accustom ourselves to 
think and reason^ in precise and steadfast terms ; even when 
custom, or the deficiency, or the corruption of the language 
will not permit the same strictness in speaking. The mathe- 
matician finds this so necessary to the truths which he is seek- 
ing, that his science begins with, and is founded on, the defini- 
tion of his terms. The botanist, the chemist, the anatomist, 
&c., feel and submit to this necessity at all costs, even at the 
risk of exposing their several pursuits to the ridicule of the 
many, by technical terms, hard to be remembered, and alike 
quarrelsome to the ear and the tongue. In the business of 
moral and religious reflection, in the acquisition of clear and 
distinct conceptions of our duties, and of the relations in which 
we stand to God, our neighbour and ourselves, no such difficul- 
ties occur. At the utmost we have only to rescue words, al- 
ready existing and familiar, from the false or vague meanings 
imposed on them by carelessness, or by the clipping and de- 
basing misusage of the market. And surely happiness, duty, 
faith, truth, and final blessedness, are matters of deeper and 
dearer interest for all men, than circles to the geometrician, or 
the characters of plants to the botanist, or the affinities and 
combining principle of the elements of bodies to the chemist, 
or even than the mechanism ( fearful and wonderful though it 
be ! ) of the perishable Tabernacle of the Soul can be to the 



PRUDENTIAL APHORISMS. 21 

anatomist. Among the aids to reflection, place the following 
maxim prominent : let distinctness in expression advance side 
by side with distinction in thought. For one useless subtlety 
in our elder divines and moralists, I will produce ten sophisms 
of eqivocation in the writings of our modern preceptors : and 
for one error resulting from excess in distinguishing the indif- 
ferent, I would show ten mischievous delusions from the habit 
of confounding the diverse. 

APHORISM VII. EDITOR. 

Whether you are reflecting for yourself, or reasoning with 
another, make it a rule to ask yourself the precise meaning of 
the word, on which the point in question appears to turn ; 
and if it may be (i. e. by writers of authority has been) used in 
several senses, then ask which of these the word is at present 
intended to convey. By this mean, and scarcely without it, 
you will at length acquire a facility in detecting the quid pro 
quo. And believe me, in so doing you will enable yourself to 
disarm and expose four-fifths of the main arguments of our 
most renowned irreligious philosophers, ancient and modern. 
For the quid pro quo is at once the rock and quarry, on and 
with which the strong-holds of disbelief, materialism, and ( more 
pernicious still) epicurean morality, are built. 

APHORISM VIII. LEIGHTON. 

If we seriously consider what religion is, we shall find the 
saying of the wise king Solomon to be unexceptionably true : 
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are 
peace. 

Doth religion require any thing of us more than that we 
live soberly y righteously, and godly in this present world ? 
Now what, I pray, can be more pleasant or peaceable than 
these ? Temperance is always at leisure, luxury always in a 
hurry : the latter weakens the body and pollutes the soul, the 
former is the sanctity, purity, and sound state of both. It is 
one of Epicurus' fixed maxims, 'That life can never be plea- 
sant without virtue.' Vices seize upon men with the violence 
and rage of furies ; but the Christian virtues replenish the 



22 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

breast which they inhabit, with a heavenly peace and abund- 
ant joy, and thereby render it like that of an angel. The 
slaves of pleasure and carnal aifections, have within them, 
even now, an earnest of future torments ; so that, in this pre- 
sent life, we may truly apply to them that expression in the 
Revelations, They that worship the beast have no rest day nor 
night. 'There is perpetual peace with the humble,' says the 
most devout A Kempis ; 'but the proud and the covetous are 
' never at rest.' 

COMMENT. 

In the works of moralists, both Christian and Pagan, it is 
often asserted (indeed there are few common-places of more 
frequent recurrence ) that the happiness even of this life con- 
sists solely, or principally, in virtue ; that virtue is the only 
happiness of this life ; that virtue is the truest pleasure^ &c. 

I doubt not that the meaning, which the writers intended to 
convey by these and the like expressions, was true and wise. 
But I deem it safer to say, nor do I doubt that in diverting 
men from sensual and dishonest courses it will often be expe- 
dient to say, that in all the outward relations of this life, in 
all our outward conduct and actions, both in what we should 
do, and in what we should abstain from, the dictates of virtue 
are the very same with those of self-interest ; that though the 
incitements of virtue do not proceed from the same point, 
yet they tend to the same point with the impulses of a reflec- 
ting and consistent selfishness ; that the outward object of 
virtue being the greatest producible sum of happiness of all 
men, it must needs include the object of an intelligent self- 
love, which is the greatest possible happiness of one individu- 
al ; for what is true of all, must be true of each. Hence, you 
cannot become better, (i e. more virtuous), but you will be- 
come happier : and you cannot become worse, (i. e, more vi- 
cious), without an increase of misery (or at the best a propor- 
tional loss of enjoyment) as the consequence. If the thing 
were not inconsistent with our well-being, and known to be so, 
it would not have been classed as a vice. Thus what in an 
enfeebled and disorded mind is called prudence, is the voice 



PRUDENTIAL APHORISMS. 23 

of nature in a healthful state ; as is proved by the known fact, 
that the prudential duties, (i. e. those actions which are com- 
manded by virtue because they are prescribed by prudence ) , 
the animals fulfil by natural instinct. 

The pleasure that accompanies or depends on a healthy and 
vigorous body will be the consequence and reward of a tem- 
perate life and habits of active industry, whether this pleasure 
were or were not the chief or only determining motive there- 
to. Virtue may, possibly, add to the pleasure a good of ano- 
ther kind, a higher good, perhaps, than the worldly mind is ca- 
pable of understanding, a spiritual complacency, of which in 
your present sensualized state you can form no idea. It may 
add^ I say, but it cannot detract from it. Thus the reflected 
rays of the sun that give light, distinction, and endless multi- 
formity to the mind, give at the same time the pleasurable 
sensation of warmth to the body. If then the time has not 
yet come for any thing higher, act on the maxim of seeking 
the most pleasure with the least pain : and, if only you do 
not seek where you yourself know it will not be found, this 
very pleasure and this freedom from the disquietude of pain, 
existing in conjunction with their immediate causes and ne- 
cessary conditions, and with the other almost certain con- 
sequences of of these causes, (for instance, the advantages of 
good character, the respect and sympathy of your neighbours, 
sense of increasing power and influence, &c.) may produce in 
you a state of being directly and indirectly favourable to the 
germination and up-spring of a nobler seed. They may pre- 
pare and predispose you to the sense and acknowledgement of 
a principle, differing not merely in degree but in kind from the 
faculties and instincts of the higher and more intelligent spe- 
cies of animals, (the ant, the beaver, the elephant), and which 
principle is therefore your proper humanity. And on this ac- 
count and with this view alone may certain modes of pleasure- 
able or agreeable sensation, without confusion of terms, be hon- 
oured with the title of refined, intellectual, ennobling pleasures. 
For Pleasure ( and happiness in its proper sense is but the 
continuity and sum-total of the pleasure which is allotted or 



24 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

happens to a man, and hence by the Greeks called £UTux»a, i- e. 
good-hap, or more religiously £u5a»fxovia, i. e. favourable provi- 
dence ) — Pleasure I say, consists in the harmony between the 
specific excitability of a living creature, and the exciting cau- 
ses correspondent thereto. Considered, therefore, exclusively 
in and for itself, the only question is, quantum ? not, quale ? 
How much on the whole 9 the contrary, i, e. the painful and 
disagreeable, having been subtracted. The quality is a mat- 
ter of taste : et de gustibus non est disputandum. No man 
can judge for another. 

This, I repeat, appears to me a safer language than the sen- 
tences quoted above ( that virtue alone is happiness ; that hap- 
piness consists in virtue, &c. ) sayings which I find it hard to 
reconcile with other positions of still more frequent occurrence 
in the same divines, or with the declaration of St. Paul: "If 
in this life, only, we have hope, we are of all men most misera- 
ble." Such language the soundest moralists were obliged to 
employ, before grace and truth were brought into the world 
by Jesus Christ. And such language may, I doubt not, even 
now be profitably addressed both to individuals and to classes 
of men ; though in what proportion it should be dwelt on, and 
to what extent it is likely to be eflScacious, a leview of the 
different epochs memorable for the turning of many from their 
evil ways, and a review of the means by which this reforma- 
tion of life has been principally effected, renders me scrupu- 
lous in deciding. 

At all events, I should rely far more confidently on the con- 
verse, viz. that to be vicious is to be miserable. Few men 
are so utterly reprobate, so imbruted by their vices, as not to 
have some lucid, or at least quiet and sober intervals ; and in 
such a moment, dum desceviunt ircB^ few can stand up unshaken 
against the appeal to their own experience — what have been 
the wages of sin ? what has the devil done for you ? What 
sort of master have you found him ? Then let us in befitting 
detail^ and by a series of questions that ask no loud, and are 
secure against any false^ answer, urge home the proof of the 
position, that to be vicious is to be wretched ; adding the fear- 



PRUDENTIAL APHORISMS. 25 

ful corollary, that if even in the body, which as long as life is 
in it can never be w?Ao% bereaved of pleasurable sensations, 
vice is found to be misery, what must it not be in the world to 
come ? There, where even the criine is no longer possible, 
much less the gratifications that once attended it — where no- 
thing of vice remains but its guilt and its misery — vice must 
be misery itself, all and utter misery. — So best, if I err not, 
may the motives of prudence be held forth, and the impulses 
of self-love be awakened, in alliance with truth, and free from 
the danger of confounding things (the Laws of Duty, I mean, 
and the Maxims of Interest) which it deeply concerns us to 
keep distinct, inasmuch as this distinction and the faith therein 
are essential to our moral nature [23] , and this again the ground- 
work and pre-condition of the spiritual state, in which the 
Humanity strives after Godliness and, in the name and power, 
and through the prevenient and assisting grace of the Media- 
tor, will not strive in vain. 

APHORISM IX. EDITOR. 

The advantages of a life passed in conformity with the pre- 
cepts of virtue and religion, and in how many and various re- 
spects they recommend virtue and religion, even on grounds 
of prudence, fonn a delightful subject of meditation, and a 
source of refreshing thought to good and pious men. Nor is 
it strange if, transported with the view, such persons should 
sometimes discourse on the charm of forms and colours to men 
whose eyes are not jet couched; or that they occasionally 
seem to invert the relations of cause and effect, and forget that 
there are acts and determinations of the will and affections, 
tlie consequences of w^hich may be plainly foreseen, and yet 
cannot be made our proper and primary motives for such acts 
and determinations, without destroying or entirely altering the 
distinct nature and character of the latter. Sophron is well 
informed that wealth and extensive patronage will be the con- 
sequence of his obtaining the love and esteem of Constantia. 
But if the foreknowledge of this consequence were, and were 
found out to be, Sophron's main and determining motive for 
seeking this love and esteem ; and if Constantia were a woman 

4 



26 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

that merited, or was capable of feeling, either one or the other, 
would not Sophron find ( and deservedly too ) aversion and con- 
tempt in their stead? Wherein, if not in this, differs the 
friendship of worldlings from true friendship ? Without kind 
offices and useful services, wherever the power and opportu- 
nity occur, love would be a hollow pretence. Yet what noble 
mind would not be offended, if he were thought to value the 
love for the sake of the services, and not rather the services 
for the sake of the love ? 

Dissertations on the profitableness of righteousness, that 
"her ways are ways of pleasantness," we possess many and 
eloquent, and in our most popular works. Many such passa- 
ges, and of great beauty, occur in the volumes of Archbishop 
Leighton ; but they are not particularly characteristic of his 
mind and genius. For these reasons, therefore, in addition to 
the scruples avowed in the preceding pages, I have confined 
my selection to a few specimens ; and shall now conclude what 
I have thought expedient to observe in my own person, by 
guarding against any possible misinterpretation of my senti- 
ments by the two following aphorisms : 

APHORISM X. EDITOR. 

Though prudence in itself is neither virtue nor spiritual ho- 
liness, yet without prudence, or in opposition to it, neither vir- 
tue nor holiness can exist* 

APHORISM XL EDITOR. 

Art thou under the tyranny of sin ? a slave to vicious habits ? 
at enmity with God, and a skulking fugitive from thy own con- 
science ? 0, how idle the dispute, whether the listening to the 
dictates of prudence from prudential and self-interested motives 
be virtue or merit, when the not listening is guilt, misery, mad- 
ness, and despair ! The best, the most Christianlike pity thou 
canst show, is to take pity on thy own soul. The best and most 
acceptable service thou canst render, is to do justice and show 
mercy to thyself. 

APHORISM XII. LEIGHTON. 

What, you will say, have I beasts within me .'* Yes, you 



PRUDENTIAL APHORISMS. 



27 



have beasts, and a vast number of them . And, that you may not 
think I intend to insult you, is anger an inconsiderable beast, 
when it barks in your heart ? What is deceit, when it lies hid 
in a cunning mind ; is it not a fox ? Is not the man who is fu- 
riously bent upon calumny, a scorpion? Is not the person 
who is eagerly set on resentment and revenge, a most venom- 
ous viper ? What do you say of a covetous man ; is he not a 
ravenous wolf? And is not the luxurious man, as the prophet 
expresses it, a neighing horse ? Nay, there is no wild beast 
but is found within us. And do you consider yourself as lord 
and prince of the wild beasts, because you command those that 
are without, though you never think of subduing or setting 
bounds to those that are within you ? What advantage have 
you by your reason, which enables you to overcome lions, if, 
after all, you, yourself, are overcome by anger ? To what pur- 
pose do you rule over the birds, and catch them with gins, if 
you, yourself, with the inconstancy of a bird, or hurried hither 
and thither, and sometimes flying high, are ensnared by pride, 
sometimes brought down and caught by pleasure ? But as it is 
shameful for him who rules over nations, to be a slave at home, 
and for the man who sits at the helm of the state, to be mean- 
ly subjected to the beck of a contemptible harlot, or even of 
an imperious wife ; will it not be, in like manner, disgraceful 
for you who exercise dominion over the beasts that are with- 
out you, to be subject to a great many, and those of the worst 
sort, that roar and domineer in your distempered mind ? 

APHORISM XIIL LEIGHTON. 

There is a settled friendship, nay, a near relation and simili- 
tude between God and good men ; he is even their father ; but, 
in their education, he inures them to hardships. When, there- 
fore, says Seneca, you see them struggling with difficulties, 
sweating, and employed in up-hill work.; while the wicked, 
on the other hand, are in high spirits, and swim in pleasures ; 
consider, that we are pleased with modesty in our children, 
and forwardness in our slaves : the former we keep under by 
severe discipline, while we encourage impudence in the latter. 



28 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Be persuaded that God takes the same method. He does not 
pamper the good man with delicious fare, but tries him ; he 
accustoms him to hardships, and, (which is a wonderful express- 
ion in a heathen) prepares him for himself. 

APHORISM XIV. LEIGHTON. 

If what we are told concerning that glorious city, obtain 
credit with us, we shall cheerfully travel towards it, nor shall 
we be at all deterred by the difficulties that may be in the way. 
But, however, as it is true, and more suitable to the weakness 
of our minds, which are rather apt to be affected with things 
present and near, than such as are at a great distance, we ought 
not to pass over in silence, that the way to the happiness re- 
served in heaven, which leads through this earth, is not only 
agreeable because of the blessed prospect it opens, and the 
glorious end to which it conducts, but also for its own sake, 
and on account of the innate pleasure to be found in it, far 
preferable to any other way of Kfe that can be made choice of, 
or, indeed, imagined. Nay, that we may not, by low express- 
ions, derogate from a matter so grand and so conspicuous, that 
holiness and true rehgion which leads directly to the highest 
felicity, is itself the only happiness, as far as it can be enjoyed 
on this earth. Whatever naturally tends to the attainment of 
any other advantage, participates, in some measure,. of the na- 
ture of that advantage. Now, the way to perfect felicity, if 
any thing can be so, is a means that, in a very great measure, 
participates of the nature of its end ; nay, it is the beginning of 
that happiness, it is also to be considered a part of it, and dif- 
fers from it, in its complctest state, not so much in kind, as in 
degree. 

APHORISM XV. LEIGHTON. 

'We are always resolving to live, and yet never set about 
'life in good earnest[24].' Archimsdes was not singular in 
his fate ; but a great part of mankind die unexpectedly, while 
they are poring upon the figures they have described in the 
sand. O wretched mortals! who having condemned them- 
selves,' as it were, to the mines, seem to make it their chief 



PRUDENTIAL APHORISMS. 89 

study to prevent their ever regaining their liberty. Hence, 
new employments are assumed in the place of old ones ; and, 
as the Roman philosopher truly expresses it, ' one hope suc- 
' ceeds another, one instance of ambition makes way for ano- 
'ther; and we never desire an end of our misery, but on- 
'ly that it may change its outward form [25]-' When we 
cease to be candidates, and to fatigue ourselves in soliciting 
interest, we begin to give our votes and interest to those who 
solicit us in their turn. When we are wearied of the trouble 
of prosecuting crimes at the bar, we commence judges our- 
selves ; and he who is grown old in the management of other 
men's affairs for money, is at last employed in improving his 
own wealth. At the age of fifty, says one, I will retire, and 
take my ease ; or the sixtieth year of my hfe shall entirely 
disengage me from public offices and business. Fool ! art thou 
not ashamed to reserve to thyself the last remains and dregs 
of life ? Who will stand surety that thou shalt live so long ? 
And what immense folly is it, so far to forget mortality, as to 
think of beginning to live at that period of years, to which a 
few only attain ! 



REFLECTIONS RESPECTING MORALITY. 



If Prudence, though practically inseparable from Morality, 
is not to be confounded with the Moral Principle ; still less 
may Sensibility, i. e. a constitutional quickness of Sympathy 
with Pain and Pleasure, and a keen sense of the gratifications 
that accompany social intercourse, mutual endearments, and 
reciprocal preferences, be mistaken, or deemed a Substitute 
for either. They are not even sure pledges of a good heart, 
though among the most common meanings of that many-mean- 
ing and too commonly misapplied expression. 

So far from being either morality, or one with the Moral 
Principle, they ought not even be placed in the same rank 
with Prudence. For Prudence is at least an offspring of the 
Understanding; but Sensibility (the Sensibility, I mean, here 
spoken of), is for the greater part a quality of the nerves, and 
a result of individual bodily temperament. 

Prudence is an active Principle, and implies a sacrifice of 
Self, though only to the same Self projected^ as it were, to a 
distance. But the very term sensibility, marks its passive 
nature ; and in its mere self, apart from Choice and Reflec- 
tion, it proves little more than the coincidence or contagion 
of pleasureable or painful Sensations in different persons. 

Alas ! how many are there in this over-stimulated age, in 
which the occurrence of excessive and unhealthy sensitive- 
ness is so frequent, as even to have reversed the current 
meaning of the word, nervous — how many are [26] there 
whose sensibility prompts them to remove those evils alone, 
which by hideous spectacle or clamorous outcry are present 
to their senses and disturb their selfish enjoyments. Provi- 
ded the dunghill is not before their parlour window^, they are 
well contented to know that it exists, and perhaps as the hot- 



32 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

bed on which their own luxuries are reared. Sensibility is 
not necessarily Benevolence. Nay, by rendering us trem- 
blingly alive to trifling misfortunes, it frequently prevents it, 
and induces an effeminate Selfishness instead ; 

Pampering the coward heart 

With feelings all too delicate for use. 

Sweet are the Tears, that from a Howard's eye 

Drop on the cheek of one, he lifts from earth : 

And He, who works me good with unmoved face, 

Does it but half. He chills me, while he aids, 

My Benefactor, not my Brother man. 

But even this, this cold benevolence. 

Seems Worth, seems Manhood, when there rise before me 

The sluggard Pity's vision- weaving Tribe, 

Who sigh for wretchedness yet shun the wretched. 

Nursing in some delicious Solitude 

Their Slothful Loves and dainty Sympathies. 

Sibylline Leaves, p. 180. 

Lastly, where Viitue is. Sensibility is the ornament and be- 
coming Attire of Virtue- On certain occasions it may almost 
be said to 6ecome[27] Virtue. But Sensibility and all the 
amiable Qualities may likewise become, and too often have 
become, the panders of Vice and the instruments of Seduc- 
tion. 

So must it needs be with all qualities that have their rise 
only in parts and fragments of our nature. A man of warm 
passions may sacrifice half his estate to rescue a friend from 
Prison : for he is naturally sympathetic, and the more social 
part of his nature happened to be uppermost. The same man 
shall afterwards exhibit the same disregard of money in an at- 
tempt to seduce that friend's Wife or Daughter. 

All the evil achieved by Hobbes and the whole School of 
Materialists will appear inconsiderable if it be compared with 
the mischief effected and occasioned by the Sentimental Phi- 



REFLECTIONS RESPECTING MORALITY. 38 

losophy of Sterne, and his numerous Imitators. The vilest 
appetites and the most remorseless inconstancy towards their 
objects., acquired the titles of the Heart, the irresistible Feel- 
ings, the too tender Sensibility : and if the Frosts of Prudence, 
the icy chains of Human Law thawed and vanished at the 
genial warmth of Human Nature, who could help it? It was 
an amiable weakness ! 

About this time too the profanation of the word, Love, rose 
to its height. The French Naturalists, Buffon and others 
borrowed it from the sentimental Novelists : the Swedish and 
English Philosophers took the contagion ; and the muse of 
Science condescended to seek admission into the Saloons of 
Fashion and Frivolity, rouged like an Harlot, and with the 
Harlot's wanton leer. I know not how the Annals of Guilt 
could be better forced into the service of Virtue, than by such 
a Comment on the present paragraph, as would be afforded by 
a selection from the sentimental correspondence produced in 
Courts of Justice within the last thirty years, fairly translated 
into the true meaning of the words, and the actual Object and 
Purpose of the infamous writers. Do you in good earnest aim 
at Dignity of Character ? By all the treasures of a peaceful 
mind, by all the charms of an open countenance, I conjure 
you, O youth ! turn away from those who live in the Twilight 
between Vice and Virtue. Are not Reason, Discrimination, 
Law, and deliberate Choice, the distinguishing Characters of 
Humanity ? Can aught then worthy of a human Being pro- 
ceed from a Habit of Soul, which would exclude all these and 
( to borrow a metaphor from Paganism ) prefer the den of Tro- 
phonius to the Temple and Oracles of the God of Light .'' Can 
any thing manly, I say, proceed from those, who for Law and 
Light would substitute shapeless feelings, sentiments, impul- 
ses, which as far as they differ from the vital woikings in the 
brute animals owe the difference to their former connexion 
with the proper Virtues of Humanity ; as Dendrites derive 
the outlines, that constitute their value above other clay- 
stones, from the casual neighbourhood and pressure of the 
Plants, the names of which they assume ! Remember, that 

5 



34 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Love itself in its highest earthly Bearing, as the ground of the 
marriage union [28], becomes Love by an inward fiat of the 
Will, by a completing and sealing Act of Moral Election, and 
lays claim to permanence only under the form of duty. 

Again, I would impress it on the reader, that in order to the 
full understanding of any Whole, it is necessary to have learnt 
the nature of the component parts, of each severally and, as 
far as is possible, abstracted from the changes it may have un- 
dergone in its combination with the others. On this account I 
have deferred in order to give effectually the more interesting 
and far more cheering contemplation of the same Subjects in 
the reverse order ; Prudence, namely, as it flows out of Mo- 
rality, and Morality as the natural Overflowing of Religion ; 
for religious principle is always the true though sometimes 
the hidden Spring and Fountain head of all true Morality. 

I have hitherto considered Prudence and Morality as two 
Streams from different sources, and traced the former to its 
supposed confluence with the latter. And if it had been my 
present purpose and undertaking to have placed Fruits from 
my own Garden before the Reader, 1 should in like manner 
have followed the course of Morality from its Twin Sources, 
the Affections and the Conscience, till ( as the main Feeder 
into some majestic Lake rich with hidden Springs of its own) 
it flowed into, and became one with, the Spiritual Life. 

But without a too glaring Breach of the promise, that the 
Banquet for the greater part should consist of Choice Clusters 
from the Vineyards of Archbishop Leighton, this was not 
practicable, and now, I trust, with the help of these introduc- 
tory pages, no longer necessary. 

Still, however, it appears to me of the highest use and of 
vital importance to let it be seen, that Rehgion or the Spirit- 
ual Life is a something in itself, for Avhich mere Morality, 
were it even far niore perfect in its kind than experience au- 
thorises us to expect in unaided human Nature, is no Substi- 
tute^ though it cannot but be its Accompaniment. So far, 
therefore, I have adapted the arrangement of the extracts to 
this principle, that though I have found it impossible to sepa- 



REFLECTIONS RESPECTING MORALITY. 85 

rate the Moral from the Religious, the morality and moral 
views of Leighton being every where taken from the point 
of Christian Faith, I have yet brought together under one 
head, and in a separate Chapter, those subjects of Reflection, 
that necessarily suppose or involve the faith in an eternal 
state, and the probationary nature of our existence under 
Time and Change, 

These whether doctrinal or ascetic (disciplinary^ from the 
Greek a^xsw, to exercise^) whether they respect the obstacles 
to the attainment of the Eternal, irremoveable by the unre- 
newed and unaided Will of Man ; or the removal of these 
Obstacles, with its Concurrents and Consequents ; or lastly, 
the Truths, necessary to a rational belief in the Future, and 
which alone can interpret the Past, or solve the Riddle of the 
Present ; are especially meant in the term Spiritual. 

Amply shall I deem myself remunerated if either by the 
holy Charm, the good Spell of Leighton's Words, than which 
few if any since the Apostolic age better deserve the name of 
Evangelical^ or by my own notes and interpolations, the re- 
flecting Reader should be enabled to apprehend — for we may 
rightly apprehend what no finite mind can fully comprehend — 
and attach a distinct meaning to, the Mysteries into which his 
Baptism is the initiation ; and thus to feel and know, that 
Christian Faith is the perfection of Human Reason. 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 



APHORISM I. LEIGHTON. 

What the Apostles were in an extraordinary way befittino- 
the first annunciation of a Religion for all Mankind, this all 
Teachers of Moral Truth, who aim to prepare for its recep- 
tion by calling the attention of men to the Law in their own 
hearts, may, without presumption, consider themselves to be 
under ordinary gifts and circumstances : namely. Ambassadors 
for the Greatest of Kings, and upon no mean employment, 
the great Treaty of Peace and Reconcilement betwixt him 
and Mankind. 

APHORISM II. LEIGHTON. 

OF THE FEELINGS NATURAL TO INGENUOUS MINDS TOWARDS 
THOSE WHO HAVE FIRST LED THEM TO REFLECT. 

Though Divine Truths are to be received equally from eve- 
ry Minister alike, yet it must be acknowledged that there is 
something (we know not what to call it) of a more accepta- 
ble reception of those who at first were the means of bring- 
ing men to God, than of others ; like the opinion some have 
of physicians, whom they love. 

APHORISM III. L. AND ED. 

The worth and value of Knowledge is in proportion to the 
worth and value of its object. What, then, is the best knowl- 
edge ? 

The exactest knowledge of things, is, to know them in their 
causes ; it is then an excellent thing, and worthy of their en- 
deavours who are most desirous of knowledge, to know the 
best things in their highest causes ; and the happiest way of 
attaining to this knowledge, is to possess those things, and to 
know them in experience. 



38 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

APHORISM IV. LEIOMTON. 

It is one main point of happiness, that he that is happy doth 
know and judge himself to be so. This being the peculiar 
good of a reasonable creature, it is to be enjoyed in a reason- 
able way. It is not as the dull resting of a stone, or any oth- 
er natural body in its natural place ; but the knowledge and 
consideration of it is the fruition of it, the very relishing and 
tasting of its sweetness. 

REMARK. 

As in a Christian Land we receive the lessons of Morality 
in connexion with the Doctrines of Revealed Religion, we 
cannot too early free the mind from prejudices widely spread 
in part through the abuse, but far more from ignorance, of the 
true meaning of doctrinal Terms, which, however they may 
have been perverted to the purposes of Fanaticism, are not 
only scriptural, but of too frequent occurrence in Scripture to 
be overlooked or passed by in silence. The following extract 
therefore, deserves attention, as clearing the doctrine of Sal- 
vation, in connexion with the divine Foreknowledge, from all 
objections on the score of Morality, by the just and impressive 
view which the Archbishop here gives of those occasional 
revolutionary moments, that Turn of the Tide in the mind 
and character of certain Individuals, which ( taking a religious 
course, and referred immediately to the Author of all Good) 
were in his day, more generally than°at present, entitled ef- 
fectual CALLING. The theological interpretation and the 
philosophic validity of this Apostolic Triad, Election, Salva- 
tion, and Effectual Calling, (the latter being the intermediate) 
will be found among the Editor's Comments on the Aphorisms 
of Spiritual Import. For our present purpose it will be suffi- 
cient if only w^e prove, that the Doctrines are in themselves 
innocuous^ and may be both held and taught without any prac- 
tical ill consequences, and without detriment to the moral 
frame. 

APHORlSlM V. LEIGHTOK. 

Two Links of the Chain (viz. Election and Salvation) are 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 39 

up in heaven in God's own hand; but this middle one (i. e. 
Effectual Calling) is let down to earth, into the hearts of his 
children, and they laying hold on it have sure hold on the oth- 
er two : for no power can sever them. If, therefore, they can 
read the characters of God's image in their own souls, those 
are the counter-part of the golden characters of His Love, in 
which their names are written in the book of life. Their be- 
lieving wrttes their names under the promises of the revealed 
book of life (the Scriptures) and thus ascertains them, that 
the same names are in the secret book of life which God hath 
by himself from eternity. So that finding the stream of 
grace in their hearts, though they see not the fountain whence 
it flows, nor the ocean into which it returns, yet they know 
that it hath its source in their eternal election, and shall empty 
itself into the ocean of their eternal salvation. 

If election^ effectual calling and salvation be inseparably 
linked together, then, by any one of them a man may lay 
hold upon all the rest, and may know that this hold is sure ; 
and this is the way wherein we may attain, and ought to seek, 
the comfortable assurance of the love of God. Therefore 
make your calling sure^ and by that, your election ; for that 
being done, this follows of itself. We are not to pry imme- 
diately into the decree, but to read it in the performance. 
Though the mariner sees not the pole-star, yet the neeedle of 
the compass which points to it, tells him which way he sails ; 
thus the heart that is touched with the loadstone of divine 
love, trembling with godly fear, and yet still looking towards 
God by fixed believing, interprets the fear by the love in the 
fear, and tells the soul that its course is heavenward, towards 
the haven of eternal rest. He that loves, may be sure he was 
loved first ; and he that chooses God for his delight and por- 
tion, may conclude confidently, that God hath chosen him to be 
one of those that shall enjoy him, and be happy in him for ev- 
er ; for that our love and electing of him is but the return and 
repercussion of the beams of his love shining upon us. 

Although from present unsanctification, a man cannot infer 
that he is not elected ; for the decree may, for part of a man's 



40 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

life, run (as it were) underground ; yet this is sure, that that 
estate leads to death, and unless it be broken, will prove the 
black line of reprobation. A man hath no portion amongst 
the children of God, nor can read one word of comfort in all 
the promises that belong to them, while he remains unholy. 

REMARK. 

In addition to the preceding, I select the following para- 
graphs as having no where seen the term. Spirit, the Gifts of 
the Spirit, and the like, so effectually vindicated from the 
sneers of the Sciolist on one hand, and protected from the 
perversions of the Fanatic on the other. In these paragraphs 
the Archbishop at once shatters and precipitates the only 
draw-bridge between the fanatical and the orthodox doctrine 
of Grace, and the Gifts of the Spirit. In Scripture the term. 
Spirit, as a power or property seated in the human soul, never 
stands singly, but is always specified by a genitive case follow- 
ing ; this being an Hebraism instead of the adjective which 
the Writer would have used if he had thought, as well as 
written, in Greek. It is "the Spirit of Meekness" (a meek 
Spirit), or "the Spirit of Chastity," and the like. The mo- 
ral Result, the specific Form and Character in which the Spirit 
manifests its presence, is the only sure pledge and token of 
its presence : which is to be, and which safely may be, infer- 
red from its practical effects, but of which an immediate knowl- 
edge or consciousness is impossible ; and every Pretence to 
such knowledge is either hypocrisy or fanatical delusion. 

APHORISM VI. LEIGHTON. 

If any pretend that they have the Spirit, and so turn away 
from the straight rule of the holy Scriptures, they have a spirit 
indeed, but it is a fanatical spirit, a spirit of delusion and gid- 
diness : but the Spirit of God, that leads his children in the 
way of truth, and is for that purpose sent them from heaven 
to guide them thither, squares their thoughts and ways to that 
rule vrhereof it is author, and that word which was inspired 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 41 

by it, and sanctifies them to obedience. He that saith I know 
him^ and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the 
truth is not in him. ( 1 John ii. 4. ) 

Now this Spirit which sanctifieth, and sanctifieth to obedi- 
ence, is within us the evidence of our election, and the ear- 
nest of our salvation. And whoso are not sanctified and led 
by this Spirit, the Apostle tells us what is their condition : If 
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. The 
stones which are appointed for that glorious temple above, are 
hewn, and polished, and prepared for it here ; as the stones 
were wrought and prepared in the mountains, for building the 
temple at Jerusalem. 

COMMENT. 

There are many serious and sincere Christians who have 
not attained to a fullness of knowledge and insight, but are 
w^ell and judiciously employed in preparing for it. Even these 
may study the master- works of our elder Divines with safety 
and advantage, if they will accustom themselves to translate 
the theological terms into their moral equivalents ; saying to 
themselves — This may not be all that is meant, but this is 
meant, and it is that portion of the meaning, which belongs to 
me in the present stage of my progress. For example : ren- 
der the words, sanctification of the Spirit, or the sanctifying 
influences of the Spirit, by. Purity in Life and Action from a 
pure Principle. 

We need only reflect on our own experience to be convin- 
ced, that the Man makes the motive, and not the motive the 
Man. What is a strong motive to one -man, is no motive at 
all to another. If, then, the man determines the motive, what 
determines the Man — to a good and worthy act, we will say, 
or a virtuous Course of Conduct ? The intelligent Will, or 
the self-determining Power ? True, in part it is ; and there- 
fore the Will is pre-eminently the spiritual Constituent in our 
Being. But will any reflecting man admit, that his own Will 
is the only and sufiicient determinant of all he is, and all he 
does ? Is nothing to be attributed to the harmony of the sys- 

6 



42 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

tern to which he belongs, and to the pre-established Fitness 
of the Objects and Agents, known and unknown, that sur- 
round him, as acting on the will, though doubtless, with it 
likewise ? a process, which the co-instantaneous yet recipro- 
cal action of the Air and the vital Energy of the Lungs in 
Breathing may help to render intelligible. 

Again : in the World we see every where evidences of a 
Unity, which the component Parts are so far from explaining 
that they necessarily pre-suppose it as the cause and condition 
of their existing cls those parts : or even of their existing at 
all. This antecedent Unity, or Cause and Principle of each 
Union, it has since the time of Bacon and Kepler been cus- 
tomary to call a Law. This Crocus, for instance: or any 
other Flower, the Reader may have in sight or choose to 
bring before his fancy. That the root, stem, leaves, petals, 
&c. cohere to one plant, is owing to an antecedent Power or 
Principle in the Seed, which existed before a single particle of 
the matters that constitute the size and visibility of the Cro- 
cus, had been attracted from the surrounding soil. Air, and 
Moisture. Shall we turn to the seed ? Here too the same 
necessity meets us. An antecedent Unity (I speak not of the 
parent plant, but of an agency antecedent in the order of op- 
perance, yet remaining present as the conservative and repro- 
ductive Power) must here too be supposed. Analyse the 
Seed with the finest tools, and let the Solar Microscope come 
in aid of your senses, what do you find ? Means and instru- 
ments, a wondrous Fairy-tale of Nature, Magazines of Food, 
Stores of various sorts, Pipes, Spiracles, Defences — a House 
of Many Chambers, and the Owner and Inhabitant invisible f 
Reflect further on the countless Millions of Seeds of the same 
Name, each more than numerically differenced from every 
other : and further yet, reflect on the requisite harmony of all 
surrounding Things, each of which necessitates the same pro- 
cess of thought, and the coherence ofoiU of which to a Sys- 
tem, a World, demands its own adequate Antecedent Unity, 
which must therefore of necessity be present to all and in all, 
yet in no wise excluding or suspending the individual Law or 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 4S 

Principle of Union in each. Now will Reason, will Common 
Sense, endure the assumption, that in the material and visible 
system it is highly reasonable to believe a Universal Power, 
as the cause and pre-condition of the harmony of all particular 
Wholes, each of which involves the working Principle of its 
own Union, that it is reasonable, I say, to believe this respect- 
ing the Aggregate of Objects, which without a Subject (i. e. 
a sentient and intelligent Existence) would be purposeless 
and yet unreasonable and even superstitious or enthusiastic to 
entertain a similar belief in relation to the System of intelli- 
gent and self-conscious Beings, to the moral and personal 
World ? But if in this too, in the great Community of Per- 
sonSy it is rational to infer a One universal Presence, a One 
present to all and in all, is it not most irrational to suppose 
that a finite will can exclude it ? Whenever, therefore, the 
man is determined (i. e. impelled and directed) to act in har- 
mony of intercommunion, must not something be attributed to 
this all-present power as acting in the Will ? and by what fit- 
ter names can we call this than the law, as empowering ; the 
WORD, as informing ; and the spirit, as actuating ? 

What has been here said amounts ( I am aware ) only to a 
negative Conception ; but this is all that is required for a 
mind at that period of its growth which we are now suppo- 
sing, and as long as Religion is contemplated under the form 
of Morality. A positive Insight belongs to a more advanced 
stage : for spiritual truths can only spiritually be discerned. 
This we know from Revelation, and (the existence of spiritu- 
al truths being granted ) Philosophy is compelled to draw the 
same conclusion. But though merely negative, it is sufficient 
to render the union of Religion and Morality conceivable; suf- 
ficient to satisfy an unprejudiced Inquirer, that the spiritual 
Doctrines of the Christian Religion are not at war with the 
reasoning faculty, and that if they do not run on the same 
Line (or Radius) with the Understanding, yet neither do they 
cut or cross it. It is sufficient, in short, to prove, that some 
distinct and consistent meaning may be attached to the asser- 
tion of the learned and philosophic Apostle, that " the spirit 



44 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

beareth witness with our spirit" — i. e. with the Will, as the 
Supernatural in Man and the Principle of our Personalty — of 
that, I mean, by which we are responsible Agents ; Persons, 
and not merely living Things[29]. 

It will suffice to satisfy a reflecting mind, that even at the 
porch and threshold of Revealed Truth there is a great and 
worthy sense in which we may believe the Apostle's assur- 
ance, that not only doth " the Spirit aid our infirmities ;" that 
is act on the Will by a predisposing influence from without, 
as it were, though in a spiritual manner, and without suspen- 
ding or destroying its freedom, ( the possibility of which is 
proved to us in the influences of Education, of providential 
Occurrences, and above all, of Example ) but that in regene- 
rate souls it may act in the will ; that uniting and becoming 
one [30] with our will or spirit it may "make intercession for 
us ; " nay, in this intimate union taking upon itself the form of 
our infirmities, may intercede for us " with groanings that can- 
not be uttered." Nor is there any danger of Fanaticism or 
Enthusiasm as the consequence of such a belief, if only the 
attention be carefully and earnestly drawn to the concluding 
words of the sentence (Romans, viii. v. 26.) ; if only the due 
force and the full import be given to the term unutterable or 
incommunicable J in St. Paul's use of it. In this, the strictest 
and most proper use of the term, it signifies, that the subject, 
of which it is predicated, is something which I cannot, which 
from the nature of the thing it is impossible that I should, com- 
municate to any human mind ( even of a person under the same 
conditions with myself) so as to make it in itself the object of 
his direct and immediate consciousness. It cannot be the ob- 
ject ofmy own direct and immediate Consciousness ; but must 
be inferred. Inferred it may be from its workings : it cannot 
be perceived in them. And, thanks to God in all points in 
which the knowledge is of high and necessary concern to our 
moral and religious welfare, from the Effects it may safely be 
inferred by us, from the Workings it may be assuredly known ; 
and the Scriptures furnish the clear and unfailing Rules for 
directing the inquiry, and for drawing the conclusion. 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 45 

If any reflecting mind be surprised that the aids of the Di- 
vine Spirit should be deeper than our Consciousness can reach, 
it must arise from the not having attended sufficiently to the 
nature and necessary limits of human Consciousness. For 
the same impossibility exists as to the first acts and movements 
of our own will — the farthest back our recollection can follow 
the traces, never leads us to the first foot-mark — the lowest 
depth that the light of our Consciousness can visit even with 
a doubtful Glimmering, is still at an unknown distance from 
the Ground : and so, indeed, must it be with all Truths, and 
all modes of Being that can neither be counted, coloured, or 
delineated. Before and After, when applied to such Subjects, 
are but allegories, which the Sense or Imagination supply to 
the Understanding. The Position of the Aristotelians, Nihil 
in intellectu quod non prius in sensu, on which Mr. Locke's 
Essay is grounded, is irrefragable : Locke erred only in taking 
half the truth for a whole Truth. Conception is consequent 
on Perception. What we cannot imagine^ we cannot, in the 
proper sense of the word, conceive. 

I have already given one definition of Nature. Another, 
and differing from the former in words only, is this : Whatever 
is representable in the forms of Time and Space, is Nature. 
But whatever is comprehended in Time and Space, is included 
in the Mechanism of Cause and Effect, And conversely, 
whatever, by whatever means, has its principle in itself, so 
far as to originate its actions, cannot be contemplated in any 
of the forms of Space and Time — it must, therefore, be con- 
sidered as Spirit or Spiritual by a mind in that stage of its 
Developement which is here supposed, and which we have 
agreed to understand under the name of morality, or the Mo- 
ral State : for in this stage we are concerned only with the 
forming of negative conceptions, negative convictions ; and by 
spiritual I do not pretend to determine what the Will is^ but 
what it is not — namely, that it is not Nature. And as no man 
who admits a Will at all, (for w^e may safely presume, that no 
man not meaning to speak figuratively, w^ould call the shifting 
Current of a stream thewiLL[31] of the River), will suppose 



46 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

it below Nature, we may safely add, that it is super-natural ; 
and this without the least pretence to any positive Notion or 
Insight. 

Now Morality accompanied with Convictions like these, I 
have ventured to call Religious Morality. Of the importance 
I attach to the state of mind implied in these convictions, for 
its own sake, and as the natural preparation for a yet higher 
state and a more substantive knowledge, proof more than suf- 
ficient, perhaps, has been given in the length and minuteness 
of this introductory Discussion, and in the foreseen risk which I 
run of exposing the volume at large to the censure which every 
work, or rather which every writer, must be prepared to un- 
dergo, who, treating of subjects that cannot be seen, touched, 
or in any other way made matters of outward sense, is yet 
anxious both to attach and to convey a distinct meaning to the 
words he makes use of — the censure of being dry, abstract, and 
(of all qualities most scaring and opprobrious to the ears of 
the present geneisiiion) metaphysical : though how is it pos- 
sible that a work not physical^ that is, employed on Objects 
known or believed on the evidence of Sense, should be oth- 
er than metaphysical, that is, treating on Subjects, the evidence 
of which is not derived from the Senses, is a problem which 
Critics of this order find it convenient to leave unsolved. 

The Editor and Annotator of the present Volume, will, in- 
deed, have reason to think himself fortunate, if this be all the 
Charge ! How many smart quotations, which ( duly cemented 
by personal allusions to the Author's supposed Pursuits, Attach- 
ments, and Infirmities), would of themselves make up "A 
' Review" of the Volume, might be supplied from the works 
of Butler, Swift and Warburton. For instance : ' It may not 
' be amiss to inform the Public, that the Compiler of the Aids 
'to reflection, and Commenter on a Scotch Bishop's platonico- 

* calvinistic commentary on St. Peter, belongs to the Sect of 
' the JEolists^ whose fruitful imaginations lead them into cer- 

* tain notions, which although in appearance very unaccounta- 
' bhy are not loithout their mysteries and their meanings ; fur- 
' nishing plenty of Matter for such, whose converting Imagi- 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 47 

^ nations dispose them to reduce all things into types; who 

* can make shadows, no thanks to the Sun : and then mould 

* them into substances, no thanks to Philosophy : tvhose pe- 
^culiar Talent lies infixing tropes and allegories to the 
' LETTER, and refining what is literal into figure and mys- 
'tery.' — Tale of the Tub, Sect. xi. 

And would it were my lot to meet with a Critic, who, in 
the might of his own Convictions, and with arms of equal 
Point and Efficiency from his own Forge, would come forth as 
my assailant ; or who, as a friend to my purpose, would set 
forth the Objections to the matter and pervading Spirit of these 
Aphorisms, and the accompanying Elucidations. Were it my 
task to form the mind of a young man of Talent, desirous to 
establish his opinions and belief on solid principles, and in the 
light of distinct understanding, I would commence his theolo- 
gical studies, or, at least, that most important part of them re- 
specting the aids which Religion promises in our attempts to 
realize the ideas of Morality, by bringing together all the pas- 
sages scattered throughout the Writings of Swift and Butler, 
that bear on Enthusiasm, Spiritual Operations, and pretences 
to the Gifts of the Spirit, with the whole train of New Lights, 
Raptures, Experiences, and the like. For all that the richest 
Wit, in intimate union with profound Sense and steady Obser- 
vation, can supply on these Topics, is to be found in the works 
of these Satirists ; though unhappily alloyed with much that 
can only tend to pollute the Imagination. 

Without stopping to estimate the degree of caricature in 
the Portraits sketched by these bold Masters, and without at- 
tempting to determine in how many of the Enthusiasts, brought 
forward by them in proof of the influence of false Doctrines, 
a constitutional Insanity, that would probably have shown it- 
self in some other form, would be the truer Solution, I would 
direct my PupiPs attention to one feature common to the whole 
Group — the pretence, namely, of possessing, or a Belief and 
Expectation grounded on other men's assurances of their pos- 
sessing, an immediate Consciousness, a sensible Experience, 
of the Spirit in and during its operation on the soul. It is not 



48 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

enough that you grant them a consciousness of the Gifts and 
Graces infused, or an assurance of the Spiritual Origin of the 
same, grounded on their correspondence to the Scripture Pro- 
mises^ and their conformity with the Idea of the divine Giver. 
No! They all alike, it will be found, lay claim (or at least 
look forward ) to an inward perception of the Spirit itself and 
of its operating. 

Whatever must be misrepresented in order to be ridiculed, 
is in fact not ridiculed ; but the thing substituted for it. It is 
a Satire on something else, coupled with a Lie on the part of 
the Satirist, who knowing, or having the means of knowing 
the truth, chose to call one thing by the name of another. The 
Pretensions to the Supernatural, inlloried by Butler, sent to 
Bedlam by Swift, and (on their re-appearance in public) gib- 
betted by Warburton, and anatomized by Bishop Lavington, 
one and all have this for their essential character, that the 
Spirit is made the immediate Object of Sense or Sensation. 
Whether the Spiritual Presence and agency are supposed cog- 
nizable by an indescribable Feeling or in unimaginable Vision 
by some specific visual energy ; whether seen, or heard, or 
touched, smelt, and tasted — for in those vast Storehouses of 
fanatical assertion, the volumes of Ecclesiastical History and 
reUgious Auto-biography, Instances are not wanting even of 
the three latter extravagancies — this variety in the mode may 
render the several pretensions more or less offensive to the 
Taste ; but with the same Absurdity for the Reason^ this be- 
ing derived from a contradiction in terms common and radical 
to them all alike, the assumption of a something essentially 
supersensual, that is nevertheless the object of sense, L 6. not 
supersensual. 

Well then ! — for let me be allowed still to suppose the Reader 
present to me, and that I am addressing him in the character 
of Companion and Guide — the positions recommended for your 
examination not only do not involve, but exclude, this incon- 
sistency. And for aught that hitherto appears, we may see 
with complacency the Arrows of Satire feathered with Wit, 
weighted with Sense, and discharged by a strong Arm, fly 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 49 

home to their mark. Our Conceptions of a possible Spiritual 
Communion, though they are but negative, and only prepara- 
tory to a faith, in its actual existence, stand neither in the Le- 
vel nor the Direction of the Shafts, 

If it be objected, that Swift and Warburton did not choose 
openly to set up the interpretations of later and more rational 
Divines against the decisions of their own Church, and from 
prudential considerations did not attack the doctrine in toto : 
that is their concern (I would answer), and it is more charita- 
ble to think otherwise. But we are in the silent school of Re- 
flection, in the secret confessional of Thought. Should we 
' lie for God,' and that to our own Thoughts ? They indeed, 
who dare do the one, will soon be able to do the other. So 
did the Comforters of Job : and to the Divines, who resemble 
Job's Comforters, we will leave both attempts. 

But (it may be said), a possible Conception is not necessa- 
rily a true one ; nor even a probable one, where the Facts can 
be otherwise explained. In the name of the supposed Pupil 
I would reply — That is the- very question I am preparing 
myself to examine ; and am now seeking the Vantage-ground 
w^here I may best command the Facts. In my own person, I 
would ask the Objector, whether he counted the Declarations of 
Scripture among the Facts to be explained. But both for my- 
self and my pupil, and in behalf of all rational Enquiry, I would 
demand that the Decision should not be such, in itself or in 
its effects, as would prevent our becoming acquainted with the 
most important of these Facts ; nay, such as would, for the 
mind of the Decider, preclude their very existence. Unless 
ye believe^ says the Prophet, ye cannot understand. Suppose 
( what is at least possible ) that the facts should be consequent 
on the belief, it is clear that without the belief the materials, 
on which tlie understanding is to exert itself, would be want- 
ing. 

The reflections that naturally arise out of this last remark, 
are those that best suit the stage at which we last halted, and 
from which we now recommence our progress — the state of a 
Moral Man, who has already welcomed certain truths of Re- 

7 



50 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

ligion, and is enquiring after other and more special Doctrines : 
still however as a Moralist, desirous indeed to receive them 
into combination with Morahty, but to receive them as its Aid, 
not as its Substitute. Now, to such a man I say ; Before you 
reject the Opinions and Doctrines asserted and enforced in the 
following Extract from our eloquent Author, and before you 
give way to the Emotions of Distaste or Ridicule, which the 
Prejudices of the Circle in which you move, or your own fa- 
miliarity with the mad perversions of the doctrine by Fanat- 
ics in all ages, have connected with the very words, Spirit, 
Grace, Gifts, Operations, &c. re-examine the arguments ad- 
vanced in the first pages of this Introductory Comment, and 
the simple and sober View of the Doctrine, contemplated in 
the first instance as a mere Idea of the Reason, flowing natu- 
rally from the admission of an infinite omnipresent Mind as the 
Ground of the Universe. Reflect again and again, and be sure 
that you understand the Doctrine before you determine on re- 
jecting it. That no false judgments, no extravagant conceits, 
no practical ill-consequences need arise out of the Belief of 
the Spirit, and its possible communion with the Spiritual Prin- 
ciple in Man, or can arise out of the right Belief, or are com- 
patible with the Doctrine truly and scrip turally explained, 
Leighton, and almost every single Period in the Passage here 
transcribed from him, will suffice to convince you. 

On the other hand, reflect on the consequences of rejecting 
it. For surely it is not the act of a reflecting mind, nor the part 
of a Man of Sense to disown and cast out one Tenet, and yet 
persevere in admitting and clinging to another that has neither 
sense nor purpose, that does not suppose and rest on the truth 
and reality of the former ! If you have resolved that all be- 
lief of a divine Comforter present to our inmost Being and 
aiding our infirmities, is fond and fanatical — if the Scriptures 
promising and asserting such communion are to be explained 
away into the action of circumstances, and the necessary move- 
ments of the vast machine, in one of the circulating chains of 
which the human Will is a petty link — in what better light can 
Prayer appear to you, than the groans of a wounded Lion in 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 51 

his solitary De.i, or the howl of a Dog with his eyes on the 
Moon ? At the best, you can regard it only as a transient be- 
wilderment of the Social Instinct, as a Social Habit misapplied ! 
Unless indeed you should adopt the theory which I remember 
to have read in the writings of the late Dr. Jebb, and for some 
supposed beneficial re-action of Praying on the Prayer's own 
Mind, should practise it as a species of Animal- Magnetism to be 
brought about by a wilful eclipse of the Reason, and a tempo- 
rary make-believe on the part of the Self-magnetizer ! 

At all events, do not prejudge a Doctrine, the utter rejec- 
tion of which must oppose a formidable obstacle to your ac- 
eeptance of Christianity itself, when the Books, from which 
alone we can learn what Christianity is and teaches, are so 
strangely written, that in a series of the most concerning points, 
including ( historical facts excepted ) all the peculiar Tenets of 
the Religion, the plain and obvious meaning of the words, that 
in which they were understood by Learned and Simple for at 
least sixteen Centuries, during the far larger part of which the 
language was a living language, is no sufficient guide to their 
actual sense or to the Writer's own Meaning ! And this too, 
where the literal and received Sense involves nothing impossi- 
ble, or immoral, or contrary to reason. With such a persuasion, 
Deism would be a more consistent Creed. But, alas ! even 
this will fail you. The utter rejection of all present and liv- 
ing communion with the Universal Spirit impoverishes Deism 
itself, and renders it as cheerless as Atheism, from which in- 
deed it would differ only by an obscure impersonation of what 
the Atheist receives unpersonified under the name of Fate or 
Nature. 

APHORISM VII. L. AND ED. 

The proper and natural Effect, and in the absence of all dis- 
turbing or intercepting forces, the certain and sensible accom- 
paniment of Peace (or Reconcilement) with God, is our own 
inward Peace, a calm and quiet temper of mind. And where 
there is a consciousness of earnestly desiring, and of having 
sincerely striven after the former, the latter may be consider- 



52 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



ed as a Sense of its presence. In this case, I say, and for a 
soul watchful, and under the discipline of the Gospel, the 
Peace with a man's self may be the medium or organ through 
which the assurance of his Peace with God is conveyed. We 
will not therefore condemn this mode of speaking, though we 
dare not greatly recommend it. Be it, that there is, truly and 
in sobriety of speech, enough of just Analogy in the subjects 
meant, to make this use of the words, if less than proper, yet 
something more than metaphorical ; still we must be cautious 
not to transfer to the Object the defects or the deficiency of 
the Organ, which must needs partake of the imperfections of 
the imperfect Beings to whom it belongs. Not without the 
co-assurance of other senses and of the same sense in other 
men, dare we affirm that what our Eye beholds, is verily there 
to be beheld. Much less may we conclude negatively, and 
from the inadequacy or suspension or affections of the Sight 
infer the non-existence, or departure, or changes of the Thing 
itself. The Chameleon darkens in the shade of him that bends 
over it to ascertain its colours. In hke manner, but with yet 
greater caution, ought we to think respecting a tranquil habit of 
the inward life, considered as a spiritual Sense^ as the medial Or- 
gan in and by which our peace with God, and the lively work- 
ing of his Grace on our Spirit, are perceived by us. This 
Peace which we have with God in Christ, is inviolable ; but 
because the sense and persuasion of it may be interrupted, the 
soul that is truly at peace with God may for a time be disqui- 
eted in itself, through weakness of faith, or the strength of 
temptation, or the darkness of desertion, losing sight of that 
grace, that love and light of God's countenance, on which its 
tranquillity and joy depend. Thou didst hide thy face^ saith 
David, and I was troubled. But when these eclipses are over 
the soul is revived with new consolation, as the face of the 
earth is renewed and made to smile with the return of the 
sun in the spring ; and this ought always to uphold Christians 
in the saddest times, viz. that the grace and love of God to- 
wards them depend not on their sense, nor upon any thing in 
them, but is still in itself, incapable of the smallest alteration. 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 53 

A holy heart that gladly entertains grace, shall find that it 
and peace cannot dwell asunder ; while an ungodly man may 
sleep to death in the lethargy of carnal presumption and im- 
penitency ; but a true, lively, solid peace he cannot have. 
There is no peace to the wicked^ saith my God^ Isa. Ivii. 21. 

APHORISM VIII. LEiGHToir. 

WORLDLY HOPES. 

Worldly hopes are not living, but lying hopes ; they die oft- 
en before us, and we live to bury them, and see our own folly 
and infelicity in trusting to them ; but at the utmost, they die 
with us when we die, and can accompany us no further. But 
the lively Hope, which is the Christian's Portion, answers ex- 
pectation to the full, and much beyond it, and deceives no way 
but in that happy way of far exceeding it. 

A living hope^ living in death itself ! The world dares say 
no ^nore for its device, than Dum spiro spero ; but the chil- 
dren of God can add, by virtue of this living hope, Dum ex- 
^piro spero. 

APHORISM IX. LEIGHTON. 

THE worldling's FEAR. 

It is a fearful thing when a man and all his hopes die to- 
gether. Thus saith Solomon of the wicked, Prov. xi. 7., 
When he dieth, then die his hopes ; ( many of them before^ 
but at the utmost then[S2]^ all of them ;) but the righteous 
hath hope in his death ^ Prov. xiv. 32. 

APHORISM X. L. AND ED. 

WORLDLY MIRTH. 

As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather^ and as 
vinegar upon nitre^ so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart, 
Prov. XXV. 20. Worldly mirth is so far from curing spiritual 
grief, that even worldly grief, where it is great and takes deep 
root, is not allayed but increased by it. A man who is full of 
inward heaviness, the more he is encompassed about with 
mirth, it exasperates and enrages his grief the more ; like in- 



§4 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

effectual weak physic, which removes not the humour, but stirs 
it and makes it more unquiet. But spiritual joy is seasonable 
for all estates : in prosperity, it is pertinent to crown and sanc- 
tify all other enjoyments, with this which so far surpasses 
them ; and in distress, it is the only Nepenthe^ the cordial of 
fainting spirits : so, Psal. iv. 7, He hath put joy into my heart. 
This mirth makes way for itself, which other mirth cannot do. 
These songs are sweetest in the night of distress. 

There is something exquisitely beautiful and touching in the 
first of these similes : and the second, though less pleasing to 
the imagination, has the charm of propriety, and expresses the 
transition with equal force and liveliness. A grief of recent 
birth is a sick infant that must have its medicine administered 
in its Milk, and sad Thoughts are the sorrowful Heart's natu- 
ral food. This is a Complaint that is not to be cured by op- 
posites, which for the most part only reverse the symptoms 
while they exasperate the Disease — or like a rock in the Mid 
Channel of a River swoln by a sudden rain-flush from the 
mountain, which only detains the excess of Waters from their 
proper outlet, and make them foam, roar, and eddy. The 
Soul in her desolation hugs the sorrow close to her, as her 
sole remaining garment : and this must be drawn off so grad- 
ually, and the garment to be put in its stead so gradually slipt 
on and feel so like the former, that the Sufferer shall be sensi- 
ble of the change only by the refreshment. The true Spirit 
of Consolation is well content to detain the tear in the eye, 
and finds a surer pledge of its success in the smile of Resig- 
nation that dawns through that, than in the liveliest shows of 
a forced and alien exhilaration. 

APHORISM XI. EDITOR. 

Plotinus thanked God, that his Soul was not tied to an im- 
mortal body. 

APHORISM XII. L. AND ED. 

What a full Confession do we make of our dissatisfaction 
with the Objects of our bodily senses, that in our attempts to 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 55 

express what we conceive the Best of Beings, and the great- 
est of Felicities to be, we describe by the exact Contraries of 
all, that we experience here — the one as /^finite, /ncompre- 
hensible, Immutable, Seethe other asmcorruptible, wndefiled, 
and that passeth not away. At all events, this Coincidence, 
say rather. Identity of Attributes is sufficient to apprize us, 
that to be inheritors of Bliss we must become the children of 
God. 

This Remark of Leighton's is ingenious and startling. Ano- 
ther, and more fruitful, perhaps more solid, inference from the 
fact would be, that there is something in the human mind 
which makes it know ( as soon as it is sufficiently awakened 
to reflect on its own thoughts and notices), that in all finite 
Quantity there is an Infinite, in all measures of Time an Eter- 
nal ; that the latter are the basis, the substance, the true and 
abiding ideality of the former ; and that as we truly are, only 
as far as God is with us, so neither can we iruXy possess {i. e. 
enjoy) our Being or any other real Good, but by living in the 
sense of his holy presence. 

A Life of Wickedness is a Life of Lies : and an Evil Be- 
ing, or the Being of Evil, the last and darkest mystery. 

APHORISM XIII. LEIGHTON. 

THE WISEST USE OF THE IMAGINATION. 

It is not altogether unprofitable ; yea, it is great wisdom irr 
Christians to be arming themselves against such temptations 
as may befal them hereafter, though they have not as yet 
met with them ; to labour to overcome them before-hand, to 
suppose the hardest things that may be incident to them, and 
to put on the strongest resolutions they can attain unto. Yet 
all that is but an imaginary effi^rt ; and therefore there is no 
assurance that the victory is any nK)re than imaginary too, 
till it come to action, and then, they 'that have spoken and 
thought very confidently, may prove but ( as one said of the 
Athenians) fortes in ^a6w/rt, patient and courageous in picture, 
or tkicy ; and notwithstanding all their arms, and dexterity in 



56 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

handling them by way of exercise, may be foully defeated 
when they are to fight in earnest. 

APHORISM XIV. EDITOR. 

THE LANGUAGE OF SCRIPTURE. 

The Word of God speaks to Men, and therefore it speaks 
the language of the Children of Men. This just and preg- 
nant Thought was suggested to Leighton by Gen. xxii. 12. 
The same Text has led the Editor to unfold and expand the 
Remark. — On moral subjects, the Scriptures speak in the lan- 
guage of the Affections which they excite in us ; on sensible 
objects, neither metaphysically, as they are known by supe- 
rior intelligences: nor theoretically, as they would be seen 
by us were we placed in the Sun ; but as they are represented 
by our human senses in our present relative position. Lastly, 
from no vain, or worse than vain. Ambition of seeming " to 
walk on the Sea" of Mystery in my way to Truth, but in the 
hope of removing a difficulty that presses heavily on the 
minds of many who in Heart and Desire are believers, and 
Avhich long pressed on my own mind, I venture to add : that 
on spiritual things, and allusively to the mysterious union or 
conspiration of the Divine with the Human in the Spirits of 
the Just, spoken of in Romans, viii. 27., the Word of God at- 
tributes the language of the Spirit sanctified to the Holy One, 
the Sanctifier. 

Now the Spirit in Man ( that is, the Will ) knows its own 
State in and by its Acts alone : even as in geometrical reason- 
ing the Mind knows its constructive faculty in the act of con- 
structing, and contemplates the act in the product {i. e. the 
mental figure or diagram ) which is inseparable from the act 
and co-instantaneous. 

Let the Reader join these two positions : first, that the Di- 
vine Spirit acting in the Human Will is described as one with 
the Will so filled and actuated : secondly, that our actions are 
the means, by which alone the Will becomes assured of its 
own state : and he will understand, though he may not per- 
haps adopt my suggestion, that the Verse, in which God speak- 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 57 

ing of himself, says to Abraham, Noio I knoiv that thou fear- 
est God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son, thy only Son 
from me — may be more than merely figur'ative. An accom- 
modation 1 grant ; but in the thing expressed, and not alto- 
gether in the Expressions. In arguing with infidels, or with 
the weak in faith, it is a part of religious Prudence, no less 
than of religious Morality, to avoid whatever looks like an 
evasion. To retain the literal sense, wherever the harmony 
of Scripture permits, and reason does not forbid, is ever the 
honester, and nine times in ten, the more rational and preg- 
nant interpretation. 

Of the Figures of Speech in the sacred Volume, that are 
only Figures of Speech, the one of most frequent occurrence 
is that which describes an effect by the name of its most usual 
and best known cause : the passages, for instance, in which 
Grief, Fury, Repentance, &c., are attributed to the Deity. 
But these are far enough from justifying the ( I had almost 
said dishonest) fashion of metaphorical Glosses, in as well aa 
but of the Church ; and which' our fashionable Divines have 
carried to such an extent, as, in the doctrinal part of their 
Creed, to leave little else but Metaphors. But the Reader 
who wishes to find this latter subject, and that of the Apho- 
rism, treated more at large, is referred to Southey's Omniana, 
Vol. II, p. 7—12. and to the Note in p. 62—67. of the Edi- 
tor's second Lay-Sermon [33]. 

APHORISM XV. L. AND ED. 

THE CHRISTIAN NO STOIC. 

Seek not altogether to dry up the stream of Sorrow, but to 
bound it, and keep it within its banks. Religion doth not des- 
troy the life of nature, but adds to it a life more excellent ; 
yea, it doth not only permit, but requires some feeling of af- 
flictions. Instead of patience, there is in some men an affect- 
ed pride of spirit suitable only to the doctrine of the Stoics as 
it is usually taken. They strive not to feel at all the afflic- 
tions that are on them ; but where there is no feeling at all, 
there can be no patience. 



58 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Of the sects of ancient philosophy the Stoic is, doubtless, 
the nearest to Christianity. Yet even to this Christianity is 
fundamentally opposite. For the Stoic attaches the highest 
honour (or rather attaches honour solely) to the person that 
acts virtuously in spite of his feelings, or who has raised him- 
self above the contlict by their extinction ; while Christianity 
instructs us to place small reliance on a Virtue that does not 
begin by bringing the Feelings to a conformity with the Com- 
mands of the Conscience. Its especial aim, its characteristic 
operation, is to moralize the affections. The Feelings, that 
oppose a right act, must be wrong Feelings. The act^ indeed, 
whatever the Agent's feelings might be, Christianity would 
command : and under certain circumstances would both com- 
mand and commend it, — commend it, as a healthful symp- 
tom in a sick Patient ; and command it, as one of the ways 
and means of changing the Feelings, or displacing, ,|fcem by 
calling up the opposite. 

APHORISM XVI. I.EIGHTON. 

As excessive eating or drinking both makes the body sickly 
and lazy, fit for nothing but sleep, and besots the mind, as it 
clogs up with crudities the way through which the spirit should 
pass[34], bemiring them, and making them move heavily, as a 
coach in a deep way ; thus doth all immoderate use of the 
world and its delight WTong the soul in its spiritual condition, 
makes it sickly and feeble, full of spiritual distempers and in- 
activity, benumbs the graces of the Spirit, and fills the soul 
with sleepy vapours, makes it grow secure and heavy in spirit- 
ual exercises, and obstructs the way and motion of the Spirit 
of God, in the Soul. Therefore, if you would be spiritual, 
healthful, and vigorous, and enjoy much of the consolations of 
Heaven, be sparing and sober in those of the earth, and what 
you abate of the one, shall be certainly made up in the other. 

APHORISM XVII L. AND ED. 

INCONSISTENCY. 

It is a most unseemly and unpleasant thing, to see a man's 
life full of ups and downs, one step like a Christian, and ano- 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 59 

tlier like a worldling ; it cannot choose but both pain himself 
and mar the edification of others. 

The same sentiment, only with a special application to the 
maxims and measures of our Cabinet and Statesmen, had been 
finely expressed by a sage Poet of the preceding Generation, 
in lines which no Generation will find inapplicable or super- 
annuated. 

God and the World we worship both together. 

Draw not our Laws to Him, but His to ours ; 
Untrue to both, so prosperous in neither. 

The imperfect Will brings forth but barren Flowers ! 
Unwise as all distracted Interests be. 
Strangers to God, Fools in Humanity : 
Too good for great things, and too great for good, 
While still, " 1 dare not" waits upon " I wou'd." 

APHORISM XVII. CONTINUED. LEIOHTOK. 

THE ORDINARY MOTIVE TO INCONSISTENCY. 

What though the polite man count thy fashion a little odd 
and too precise, it is because he knows nothing above that mo- 
del of goodness which he hath set himself, and therefore ap- 
proves of nothing beyond it : he knows not God, and there- 
fore doth not discern and esteem what is most like Him. 
When courtiers come down into the country, the common 
home-bred people possibly think their habit strange ; but they 
care not for that, it is the fashion at court. What need, then, 
that Christians should be so tender-foreheaded, as to be put 
out of countenance because the world looks on holiness as a 
singularity ? It is the only fashion in the highest court, yea, 
of the King of Kings himself. 

APHORISM XVIII. LEIGHTOW. 

SUPERFICIAL RECONCILIATIONS, AND THE SELF DECEIT IN 

FORGIVING. 

When, after variances, men are brought to an agreement. 



60 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

they are much subject to this, rather to cover their remaining 
malices with superficial verbal forgiveness, than to dislodge 
them, and free the heart of them. This is a poor self-deceit. 
As the philosopher said to him, who being ashamed that he was 
espied by him in a tavern in the outer room, withdrew him- 
self to the inner, he called after him, ' That is not the way 
'out ; the more you go that way, you will be the further in !' 
So when hatreds are upon admonition not thrown out, but re- 
tire inward to hide themselves, they grow deeper and strong- 
er than before ; and those constrained semblances of recon- 
cilement are but a false healing, do but skin the wound over, 
and therefore it usually breaks forth worse again. 

APHORISM XIX. LEiGinoN. 

OF THE WORTH AND THE DUTIES OF THE PREACHER. 

The stream of custom and our profession bring us to the 
Preaching of the Word, and we sit out our hour under the sound ; 
but how few consider and prize it as the great ordinance of 
God for the salvation of souls, the beginner and the sustainer 
of the Divine life of grace within us ! And certainly, until 
we have these thoughts of it, and seek to feel it thus ourselves, 
although we hear it most frequently, and let slip no occasion, 
yea, hear it with attention and some present delight, yet still 
we miss the right use of it, and turn it from its true end, while 
we take it not as that ingra/ted word which is able to save our 
souls^ James i. 21. 

Thus ought they who preach to speak the word ; to endeav- 
our their utmost to accommodate it to this end, that sinners 
may be converted, begotten again, and believers nourished 
and strengthened in their spiritual life ; to regard no lower end, 
but aim steadily at that mark. Their hearts and tongues ought 
to be set on fire with holy zeal for God and love to souls, 
kindled by the Holy Ghost, that came down on the apostles in 
the shape of fiery tongues. 

And those that hear, should remember this as the end of 
their hearing, that they may receive spiritual life and strength 
by the word. For though it seems a poor despicable business. 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 61 

that a frail sinful man like yourselves should speak a few 
words in your hearing, yet, look upon it as the way wherein 
God communicates happiness to those who believe, and works 
that believing unto happiness, alters the whole frame of the 
soul, and makes a new creation, as it begets it again to the in- 
heritance of glory. Consider it thus, which is its true notion ; 
and then, what can be so precious ? 

APHORISM XX. LEIGHTOIf. 

The difference is great in our natural Hfe, in some persons 
especially ; that they who in infancy were so feeble, and wrap- 
ped up as others in swaddling clothes, yet, afterwards come to 
excel in wisdom and in the knowledge of sciences, or to be 
commanders of great armies, or to be kings : but the distance 
is far greater and more admirable, betwixt the small begin- 
nings of grace, and our after perfection, that fulness of knowl- 
edge that we look for, and that crown of immortality which 
all they are born to, who are born of God. 

But as in the faces or actions of some children, characters 
and presages of their after greatness have appeared ( as a sin- 
gular beauty in Moses's face, as they write of him, and as Cy- 
rus was made king among the shepherd's children with whom 
he was brought up, &c.) so also, certainly, in these children 
of God, there be some characters and evidences that they are 
born for Heaven by their new birth. That holiness and meek- 
ness, that patience and faith which shine in the actions and 
sufferings of the saints, are characters of their Father's image, 
and show their high original, and foretel their glory to come ; 
such a glory as doth not only surpass the world's thoughts, but 
the thoughts of the children of God themselves. 1. John 
iii. 2. 

COMMENT. 

ON AN INTERMEDIATE STATE OR STATE OF TRANSITION FROM 

MORALITY TO SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 

This Aphorism would, it may seem, have been placed more 
fitly in the Chapter following. In placing it here, 1 have been 



6i AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

determined by the following Convictions: 1. Every State, 
and consequently that which we have described as the State 
of Religious Morality, which is not progressive, is dead or re- 
trogade. 2. As a pledge of this progression, or, at least, as 
the form in which the propulsive tendency shows itself, there 
are certain Hopes, Aspirations, Yearnings, that, with more or 
less of consciousness, rise and stir in the Heart of true moral- 
ity as naturally as the Sap in the full-formed stem of a Rose 
flows towards the Bud, within which the flower is maturing. 
3. No one, whose own experience authorizes him to confirm 
the truth of this statement, can have been conversant with 
the Volumes of Religious Biography, can have perused ( for 
instance) the Lives of Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Wishart, 
Sir Thomas More, Bernard Gilpin, Bishop Bedel, or of Egede, 
Swartz, and the Missionaries of the Frozen world, without an 
occasional conviction, that these men lived under extraordina- 
ry influences, that in each instance and in all ages of the Chris- 
tian sera bear the same characters, and both in the accompa- 
niments and the results evidently refer to a common origin. 
And what can this be ? is the Question that must needs force 
itself on the mind in the first moment of reflection on a phe- 
nomenon so interesting and apparently so anomalous. The 
answer is as necessarily contained in one or the other of two 
assumptions- These influences are either the Product of De- 
lusion (Insania Amabilis, and the Re-action of disordered 
Nerves), or they argue the existence of a Relation to some 
real Agency, distinct from what is experienced or acknowl- 
edged by the world at large, for which as not merely natural 
on the one hand, yet not assumed to be miraculous[^b^ on the 
other, we have no apter name than spiritual. Now if neither 
analogy justifies nor the moral feelings permit the former as- 
sumption ; and we decide therefore in favour of the Reality 
of a State other and higher than the mere Moral Man, whose 
Religion [36] consists in Morality, has attained under these 
convictions ; can the existence of a transitional state appear 
other than probable ? or that these very Convictions, when 
uccomp:mied by correspondent dispositionj^ and stirrings of the 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 6S 

Heart, are among the Marks and Indications of such a state ? 
And thinking it not unlikely that among the Readers of this 
Volume, there may be found some Individuals, whose inward 
State, though disquieted by Doubts and oftener still perhaps 
by blank Misgivings, may, nevertheless, betoken the com- 
mencement of a Transition from a not irreligious Morality to 
a Spiritual Religion, with a view to their interests 1 placed 
this Aphorism under the present Head. 

APHORISM XXI. L£IOHTON. 

The most approved teachers of wisdom, in a human way, 
have required of their scholars, that to the end their minds 
might be capable of it, they should be purified from vice and 
wickedness. And it was Socrates's custom, when any one 
asked him a question, seeking to be informed by him, before 
he would answer them, he asked them concerning their own 
qualities and course of life. 

APHORISM XXII. L. AND F.D. 

KNOWLEDGE NOT THE ULTIMATE END OF RELIGIOUS PUR- 
SUITS. 

The Hearing and Reading of the Word, under which I 
comprize theological studies generally, are alike defective 
when pursued without increase of Knowledge, and when pur^ 
sued chiefly /or increase of Knowledge. To seek no more 
than a present delight, that evanisheth with the sound of the 
words that die in the air, is not to desire the word as meat, 
but as music, as God tells the prophet Ezekiel of his people, 
Ezek. xxxiii- 32. And to, thou art unto them as a ve7y lovely 
song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well upon 
an instrument ; for they hear thy words ^ and they do them 
not. To desire the word for the increase of knowledge, al- 
though this is necessary and commendable, and, being rightly 
qualified, is a part of spiritual accretion, yet, take it as going 
no further, it is not the true end of the word. Nor is the 
venting of that knowledge in speech and frequent discourse 
of the word and the divine truths that are in it ; which, where 



64 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

it is governed with Christian prudence, is not to be despised 
but commended ; yet, certainly, the highest knowledge, and 
the most frequent and skilful speaking of the word, severed 
from the growth here mentioned, misses the true end of the 
w^ord. If any one's head or tongue should grow apace, and 
all the rest stand at a stay, it would certainly make him a mon- 
ster ; and they are no other, who are knowing and discour- 
sing Christians, and grow daily in that respect, but not at all 
in holiness of heart and life, which is the proper growth of the 
children of God. Apposite to their case is Epictetus's com- 
parison of the sheep ; they return not w4iat they eat in grass, 
but in wool. 

APHORISM XXni. LEIGHTON. 

THE SUM OF CHURCH HISTORY. 

In times of peace, the Church may dilate more, and build 
as it were into breadth, but in times of trouble, it arises more 
in height ; it is then built upwards : as in cities where men 
are straitened, they build usually higher than in the country. 

APHORISM XXIV. L. AKD ED. 

WORTHY TO BE FRAMED AND HUNG UP IN THE LIBRARY OF 
EVERY THEOLOGICAL STUDENT. 

Where there is a great deal of smoke, and no clear flame, 
it argues much moisture in the matter, yet it witnesseth cer- 
tainly that there is fire there ; and therefore dubious question- 
ing is a much better evidence, than that senseless deadness 
which most take for beheving. Men that know nothing in 
sciences, have no doubts. He never truly believed, w^ho was 
not made first sensible and convinced of unbelief. 

Never be afraid to doubt, if only you have the disposition 
to believe, and doubt in order that you may end in believing 
the Truth. I will venture to add in my own name and from 
my own conviction the following : 

APHORISM XXV. EDITOR. 

He, who begins by loving Chiistianity better than Truth, 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 65 

will proceed by loving his own Sect or Church better than 
Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all. 

APHORISM XXVI. L. AND ED. 

THE ABSENCE OF DISPUTES, AND A GENERAL AVERSION TO 
RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES, NO PROOF OF TRUE UNANIM- 
ITY. 

The boasted Peaceableness about questions of Faith too 
often proceeds from a superficial Temper, and not seldom from 
a supercilious Disdain of whatever has no marketable use or 
value, and from indifference to Religion itself. Toleration is 
an Herb of spontaneous growth in the soil of Indifference ; 
but the Weed has none of the Virtues of the Medicinal Plant^ 
reared by Humility in the Garden of Zeal. Those, who re- 
gard Religions as matters of Taste, may consistently include 
all religious differences in the old Adage, De gustibus non est 
disputandum. And many there be among these of Gallio's 
temper, who care for none of these things^ and who account 
all questions in religion, as he did, but matter of words and 
names. And by this all religions may agree together. But 
that were not a natural union produced by the active heat of 
the spirit, but a confusion rather, arising from the want of it ; 
not a knitting together, but a freezing together, as cold con- 
gregates all bodies, how heterogeneous soever, sticks, stones, 
and water ; but heat makes first a separation of different 
things, and then unites those that are of the same nature. 

Much of our common union of minds, I fear, proceeds from 
no other than the aforementioned causes, want of knowledge, 
and want of affection to religion. You that boast you live 
conformably to the appointments of the Church, and that no 
one hears of your noise, we may thank the ignorance of your 
minds for that kind of quietness. 

The preceding Extract is particularly entitled to our serious 
reflections, as in a tenfold degree more applicable to the pre- 
sent times than to the age in which it was written. We all 
know, that Lovers are apt to take offence and wrangle on oc- 
casions that perhaps are but trifles, and which assuredly would 

9 



66 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

appear such to those who regard Love itself as Folly. These 
Quarrels may, indeed, be no proof of Wisdom : but still, in 
the imperfect state of our Nature the entire absence of the 
same, and this too on far more serious provocations, would 
excite a strong suspicion of a comparative indifference in the 
Parties who can love so coolly where they profess to love so 
well. I shall believe our present religious Tolerancy to pro- 
ceed from the abundance of our charity and good sense, when 
I see proofs that we are equally cool and forbearing as Liti- 
gants and Political Partizans. 

APHORISM XXVIL leishton. 

THE INFLUENCE OF WORLDLY VIEWS (OR WHAT ARE CALLED 

A man's prospects in life), the bane of the christian 

MINISTRY. 

It is a base, poor thing for a man to seek himself : far be- 
low that royal dignity that is here put upon Christians, and 
that priesthood joined with it. Under the Law, those who 
were squint-eyed were incapable of the priesthood : truly, 
this squinting toward our own interest, the looking aside to 
that, in God's affairs especially, so deforms the face of the soul, 
that it makes it altogether unworthy the honour of this spirit- 
ual priesthood. Oh ! this is a large task, an infinite task. The 
several creatures bear their part in this; the sun says some- 
what, and moon and stars, yea, the lowest have some share in 
it ; the very plants and herbs of the field speak of God ; and 
yet, the very highest and best, yea all of them together, the 
whole concert of Heaven and earth, cannot show forth all His 
praise to the full. No, it is but apart, the smallest part of that 
glory, which they can reach. 

APHORISM XXVIIL leighton. 

DESPISE none: despair of none. 

The Jews would not willingly tread upon the smallest piece 
of paper in their w^ay, but took it up ; for possibly, said they, 
the name of God may be on it. Though there was a little 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 67 

superstition in this, yet truly there is nothing but good reli- 
gion in it, if we apply it to men. Trample not on any ; there 
may be some work of grace there, that thou knowest not of. 
The name of God may be written upon that soul thou tread- 
est on ; it may be a soul that Christ thought so much of, as to 
give His precious Wood for it ; therefore despise it not. 

APHORISM XXIX. LEIGHTON. 

MEN or LEAST MERIT MOST APT TO BE CONTEMPTUOUS, BE- 
CAUSE MOST IGNORANT AND MOST OVERWEENING OF THEM- 
SELVES. 

Too many take the ready course to deceive themselves ; for 
they look with both eyes on the failings and defects of others, 
and scarcely give their good qualities half an eye, while, on 
the contrary in themselves, they study to the full their own 
advantages, and their weaknesses and defects, (as one says), 
they skip over, as children do their hard words in their lesson, 
that are troublesome to read ; and making this uneven parallel 
what wonder if the Result be, a gross mistake of themselves ! 

APHORISM XXX. LEIGHTON. 

VANITY MAY STRUT IN RAGS, AND HUMILITY BE ARRAYED IN 
PURPLE AND FINE LINEN. 

It is not impossible that there may be in some an affected 
pride in the meanness of apparel, and in others, under either 
neat or rich attire, a very humble unaffected mind : using it 
upon some of the aforementioned engagements, or such like, 
and yet, the heart not at all upon it. Magnus qui fictilihus 
utitur tanquam argento^ nee ill minor qui argento tanquam 
fictilihus^ says Seneca: Great is he who enjoys his earthen- 
ware as if it were plate, and not less great is the man to whom 
all his plate is no more than earthenware. 

APHORISM XXXI. L. AND ED. 

OF DETRACTION AMONG RELIGIOUS PROFESSORS. 

They who have attained to a self-pleasing pitch of civihty 
or formal religion, have usually that point of presumption with 



68 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

it, that they make their own size the model and rule to exam- 
ine all hy. What is below it, they condemn indeed as pro- 
fane ; but what is beyond it, they account needless and affected 
preciseness : and therefore are as ready as others to let fly 
invectives or bitter taunts against it, which are the keen and 
poisoned shafts of the tongue, and a perseoution that shall be 
called to a strict account. 

The slanders, perchance, may not be altogether forged or 
untrue : they may be the implements, not the inventions of 
Malice. But they do not on this account escape the guilt of 
Detraction. Rather, it is characteristic of the evil spirit in 
question, to work by the advantage of real faults ; but these 
stretched and aggravated to the utmost. It is not expressi- 
ble HOW DEEP A WOUND A TONGUE SHARPENED TO THIS WORK 
WILL GIVE, WITH NO NOISE AND A VERY LITTLE WORD. This 

is the true white gunpowder, which the dreaming Projectors of 
silent Mischiefs and insensible Poisons sought for in the Lab- 
oratories of Art and Nature, in a World of Good ; but which 
was to be found, in its most destructive form, in " the World 
of Evil, the Tongue." 

APHORISMfXXXII. LEIGHTOK. 

THE REMEDY. 

All true remedy must begin at the heart ; otherwijse it will 
be but a mountebank cure, a false imagined conquest. The 
weights and wheels are there^ and the clock strikes according 
to their motion. Even he that speaks contrary to what is 
within him, guilefully contrary to his inward conviction and 
knowledge, yet speaks conformably to what is within him in 
the temper and frame of his heart, which is double, a heart 
mid a hearty as the Psalmist hath it, Psal. xii. 2. 

APHORISM XXXIII. L. AND ED. 

It is an argument of a candid ingenuous mind, to delight in 
the good name and commendation of others ; to pass by their 
defects, and take notice of their virtues ; and to speak and 
hear of those willingly, and not endure either to speak or hear 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 69 

of the other ; for in this indeed you may be little less guilty 
than the evil speaker, in taking pleasure in it, though you 
speak it not. He that willingly drinks in tales and calumnies, 
will, from the delight he hath in evil hearing, slide insensibly 
into the humor of evil speaking. It is strange how most per- 
sons dispense with themselves in this point, and that in scarce- 
ly any societies shall we find a hatred of this ill, but rather 
some tokens of taking pleasure in it ; and until a Christian sets 
himself to an inward watchfulness oter his heart, not suffering 
in it any thought that is uncharitable, or vain self-esteem, up- 
on the sight of others' frailties, he will still be subject to 
somewhat of this, in the tongue or ear at least. So, then, as 
for the evil of guile in the tongue, a sincere heart, truth in 
the imoard parts, powerfully redresses it ; therefore it is ex- 
pressed, Psal. XV. 2. That speaketh the truth from his heart ; 
thence it flows. Seek much after this, to speak nothing with 
God, nor men, but what is the sense of a single unfeigned 
heart. sweet truth ! excellent but rare sincerity ! he that 
loves that truth within, and who is himself at once the truth 
and THE LIFE, He alone can work it there ! Seek it of him. 

It is characteristic of the Roman Dignity and Sobriety, that 
in the Latin to favour the tongue ( favere linguae ) means, to 
he silent. We say. Hold your tongue ! as if it were an in- 
juuction, that could not be carried into eff*ect but by manual 
force, or the pincers of the Forefinger and Thumb ! And ve- 
rily — I blush to say it — it is not Women and Frenchmen only 
that would rather have their tongues bitten than bitted, and 
feel their souls in a strait-waistcoat, when they are obliged to 
remain silent. 

APHORISM XXXIV. leighton. 

ON THE PASSION FOB NEW AND STRIKING THOUGHTS. 

In conversation seek not so much either to vent thy knowl- 
edge, or to increase it, as to know more spiritually and effec- 
tually what thou dost know. And in this way those mean 
despised truths, that every one thinks he is sufficiently seen 
in, will have a new sweetness and use in them, which thou 



70 AIDS TO KEFLECTION. 

didst not so well perceive before ( for these flowers cannot be 
sucked dry), and in this humble sincere way thou shalt grow 
in grace and in knoivledge too. 

APHORISM XXXV. l. and ed. 

THE RADICAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE GOOD MAN AND THE 
VICIOUS MAN. 

The godly man hates the evil he possibly by temptation 
hath been drawn to do, and loves the good he is frustrated of, 
and, having intended, hath not attained to do. The sinner, 
who hath his denomination from sin as his course, hates the 
good which sometimes he is forced to do, and loves that sin 
which many times he does not, either wanting occasion and 
means, so that he cannot do it, or through the check of an en- 
lightened conscience possibly dares not do ; and though so 
bound up from the act, as a dog in a chain, yet the habit, the 
natural inclination and desire in him, is still the same, the 
strength of his affection is carried to sin. So in the weakest 
sincere Christian, there is that predominant sincerity and de- 
sire of holy walking, according to which he is called a right- 
eous person^ the Lord is pleased to give him that name, and 
account him so, being upright in heart, though often failing. 

Leighton adds, "There is a Righteousness of a higher 
" strain." I do not ask the Reader's full assent to this posi- 
tion : I do not suppose him as yet prepared to yield it. But 
thus much he will readily admit, that here, if any where, we 
are to seek the fine Line which, like stripes of Light in Light, 
distinguishes, not divides, the summit of religious Morality 
from Spiritual Religion. 

" A Righteousness (Leighton continues), that is not in him, 
but upon him. He is clothed with it." This, Reader ! is the 
controverted Doctrine, so warmly asserted and so bitterly de- 
cried under the name of " imputed righteousness." Our 
learned Archbishop, you see, adopts it ; and it is on this ac- 
count principally, that by many of our leading Churchmen his 
Orthodoxy has been more than questioned, and his name put 
in the List of proscribed Divines, as a Calvinist. That Leigh- 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 71 

ton attached a definite sense to the words above quoted, it 
would be uncandid to doubt ; and the general Spirit of his 
Writings leads me to presume that it was compatible with the 
eternal distinction between Things and Pei'sons, and there- 
fore opposed to modem Calvinism. But what it was, I have 
not (I own) been able to discover. The sense, however, in 
which I think he might have received this doctrine, and in 
which I avow myself a believer in it, I shall have an opportu- 
nity of showing in another place. My present Object is to 
open out the Road by the removal of prejudices, so far at 
least as to throw some disturbing Doubts on the secure Ta- 
king-f or- granted^ that the peculiar Tenets of the Christian 
Faith asserted in the Articles and Homilies of our National 
Church are in contradiction to the Common Sense of Man- 
kind. And with this view, (and not in the arrogant expecta- 
tion or wish, that a mere ipse dixit should be received for ar- 
gument) I here avow my conviction, that the doctrine of im- 
puted Righteousness, rightly and scripturally interpreted, is 
so far from being either irrational or immoral, that Reason 
itself prescribes the idea in order to give a meaning and an 
ultimate Object to Morality ; and that the Moral Law in the 
Conscience demands its reception in order to give reality and 
substantive existence to the idea presented by the Reason. 

APHORISM XXXVI. leighton. 

Your blessedness is not, — no, believe it, it is not where 
most of you seek it, in things below you. How can that be i^ 
It must be a higher good to make you happy. 

COMMENT. 

Every rank of Creatures, as it ascends in the scale of Cre- 
ation, leaves Death behind it, or under it. The Metal at its 
height of Being seems a mute Prophecy of the coming Vege- 
tation, into a mimic semblance of which it crystallizes. The 
Blossom and Flower, the Acme of Vegetable Life, divides in- 
to correspondent Organs with reciprocal functions, and by in- 
stinctive motions and approximations seems impatient of that 



72 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

fixture, by which it is differenced in kind from the flower-sha- 
ped Psyche, that flutters with free wing above it. And won- 
derfully in the insect realm doth the Irritability, the proper 
seat of Instinct, while yet the nascent Sensibility is subordi- 
nated thereto — most wonderfully, I say, doth the muscular 
Life in the Insect, and the musculo-arterial in the Bird, imi- 
tate and typically rehearse the adaptive Understanding, yea 
and the moral aflections and charities, of Man. Let us carry 
ourselves back, in spirit, to the mysterious Week, the teem- 
ing Work-days of the Creator : as they rose in vision before 
the eye of the inspired Historian of " the Generations of the 
Heaven and the Earth, in the days that the Lord God made 
the Eaith and the Heavens." And who that hath watch- 
ed their ways with an understanding heart, could contemplate 
the filial and loyal Bee ; the home-building, wedded, and di- 
vorceless Swallow ; and above all the manifoldly intelligent 
[37] Ant tribes, with their Commonwealths and Confedera- 
cies, their Warriors and Miners, the Husbandfolk, that fold in 
their tiny flocks on the honeyed Leaf, and the Virgin Sisters 
with the holy Instincts of Maternal Love, detached and in 
selfless purity — and not say to himself. Behold the Shadow of 
approaching Humanity, the Sun rising from behind, in the 
kindling Morn of Creation ! Thus all lower Natures find 
their highest Good in semblances and seekings of that which 
is higher and better. All things strive to ascend, and ascend 
in their striving. And shall man alone stoop ? Shall his pur- 
suits and desires, the reflections of his inward life, be like the 
reflected Image of a Tree on the edge of a Pool, that grows 
downward, and seeks a mock heaven in the unstable element 
beneath it, in neighbourhood with the slim water-weeds and 
oozy bottom-grass that are yet better than itself and more no- 
ble, in as far as Substances that appear as Shadows are pre- 
ferable to Shadows mistaken for Substance I No ! it must be 
a higher good to make you happy. While you labour for any 
thing below your proper Humanity, you seek a happy Life in 
the region of Death. Well saith the moral Poet — 

Unless above himself he can 
Erect himself, how mean a thing is man !. 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. iO 

APHORISM XXXVII. leighton. 

There is an imitation of men that is impious and wicked, 
which consists in taking the copy of their sins. Again, there 
is an imitation which though not so grossly evil, yet, is poor 
and servile, being in mean things, yea, sometimes descending 
to imitate the very imperfections of others, as fancying some 
comeliness in them , as some of Basil's scholars, who imitated 
his slow speaking, which he had a little in the extreme, and 
could not help. But this is always laudable, and worthy of 
the best of minds, to be imitators of that which is good, 
wheresoever they find it ; for that stays not in any man's per- 
son, as the ultimate pattern, but rises to the highest grace, 
being man's nearest likeness to God, His image and resem- 
blance, bearing his stamp and superscription, and belonging pe- 
culiarly to Him, in what hand soever it be found, as carrying 
the mark of no other owner than Him. 

APHORISM XXXVIII. leighton. 

Those who think themselves high-spirited, and will bear 
least, as they speak, are often, even by that, forced to bow 
most, or to burst under it ; w^hile humility and meekness es- 
cape many a burden, and many a blow, always keeping pace 
within, and often without too. 

APHORISM XXXIX. leighton. 

Our condition is universally exposed to fears and troubles, 
and no man is so stupid but he studies and projects for some 
fence against them, some bulwark to break the incursion of 
evils, and so to bring his mind to some ease, ridding it of the 
fear of them. Thus, men seek safety in the greatness, or 
multitude, or supposed faithfulness of friends ; they seek by 
any means to be strongly underset this vs^ay, to have many and 
powerful, and trust-worthy friends. But wiser men, perceiv- 
ing the unsafety and vanity of these and all external things, 
have cast about for some higher course. They see a necessi- 
ty of withdrawing a man from externals, which do nothing but 
mock and deceive those most who trust most to them ; but 

10 



74 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

they cannot tell whither to direct him. The best of them 
bring him into himself, and think to quiet him so, but the 
truth is, he finds as little to support him there ; there is noth- 
ing truly strong enough within him, to hold out against the 
many sorrows and fears which still from without do assault 
him. So then, tTiough it is well done, to call off a man from 
outward things, as moving sands, that he build not on them, 
yet, this is not enough ; for his own spirit is as unsettled a 
piece as is in all the world, and must have some higher strength 
than its own, to fortify and fix it. This is the way that is here 
taught. Fear not their fear, but sanctify the Lord your God 
in your hearts ; and if you can attain this latter, the former 
will follow of itself. 

APHORISM XL. LEIGHTON. 

WORLDLY TROUBLES IDOLS. 

The too ardent Love or self-willed Desire of Power, or 
Wealth, 01 Credit in the World, is ( an Apostle has assured us) 
Idolatry. Now among the words or synonimes for Idols, in 
the Hebrew Language, there is one that in its primary sense 
signifies Troubles (Tegirim), other two that signify Terrors 
(Miphletzeth and Emim). And so it is certainly. All our 
Idols prove so to us. They fill us with nothing but anguish 
and Troubles, with cares and fears, that are good for nothing 
but to be fit punishments of the Folly, out of which they 
arise. 

APHORISM XLL l.and ed. 

ON THE RIGHT TREATMENT OF INFIDELS. 

A regardless contempt of Infidel writings is usually the fit- 
test answer ; Bpreta vilescerent. But where the holy profes- 
sion of Christians is likely to receive either the main or the 
indirect blow, and a word of defence may do any thing to 
ward it off, there we ought not to spare to do it. 

Christian prudence goes a great way in the regulating of 
this. Some are not capable of receiving rational answers, 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 



75 



especially in Divine things ; they were not only lost upon 
them, but religion dishonored by the contest. 

Of this sort are the vulgar Railers at Religion, the foul- 
mouthed Beliers of the Christian Faith and History. Impu- 
dently false and slanderous Assertions can be met only by 
Assertions of their ii^jpudent and slanderous falsehood ; and 
Christians will not, must not condescend to this. How can 
mere Railing be answered by them who are forbidden to re- 
turn a railing answer ? Whether or on what provocations such 
offenders may be punished or coerced on the score of Incivili- 
ty, and Ill-neighbourhood, and for the abatement of a Nui- 
sance, as in the case of other Scolds and Endangerers of the 
public Peace, must be trusted to the Discretion of the Civil 
Magistrate. Even then, there is danger of giving them im- 
portance, and flattering their vanity, by attracting attention to 
their works, if the punishment be slight; and if severe, of 
spreading far and wide their reputation as Martyrs, as the 
smell of a dead dog at a distance is said to change into that of 
Musk. Experience hitherto seems to favour the plan of trea- 
ting these Betes puantes and Enfans de Diable, as their four- 
footed Brethren, the Shink and Squash, are treated [38] by 
the American Woodmen, who turn their backs upon the fetid 
Intruder, and make appear not to see him, even at the cost of 
suffering him to regale on the favourite viand of these animals, 
the brains of a stray goose or crested Thraso of the Dunghill. 
At all events, it is degrading to the majesty, and injurious to 
the character of Religion, to make its safety the plea for their 
punishment, or at all to connect the name of Christianity with 
the castigation of Indecencies that properly belong to the 
Beadle, and the perpetrators of which would have equally de- 
served his Lash, though the Religion of their fellow citizens, 
thus assailed by them, had been that of Fo or of Jaggernaut. 

On the other hand, we are to answer every one that in- 
quires a reason^ or an account ; which supposes something re- 
ceptive of it. We ought to judge ourselves engaged to give 
it, be it an enemy if he will hear ; if it gain him not, it may in 
part convince and cool him ; much more, should it be one who 



76 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

ingenuously inquires for satisfaction, and possibly inclines to 
receive the truth, but has been prejudiced by false misrepresen- 
tations of it. 

APHORISM XLII. LEiGHTOiT, 

PASSION NO FRIEND TO TRUTH. 

Truth needs not the service of passion ; yea, nothing so 
disserves it, as passion vi^hen set to serve it. The Spirit of 
truth is withal the Sjnrit of meekness. The Dove that rested 
on that great Champion of truth, who is The Truth itself, is 
from Him derived to the lovers of truth, and they ought to 
seek the participation of it. Imprudence makes some kind of 
Christians lose much of their labour, in speaking for religion, 
and drive those further off, whom they would draw into it. 

The confidence that attends a Christian's belief makes the 
believer not fear men, to whom he answers, but still he fears 
his God, for whom he answers, and whose interest is chief in 
those things he speaks of. The soul that hath the deepest 
sense of spiritual things, and the truest knowledge of God, 
is most afraid to miscarry in speaking of Him, most tender and 
wary how" to acquit itself when engJiged to speak of and for 
God[39]. 

APHORISM XLIII. LEIGHTON. 

ON THE CONSCIENCE. 

It is a fruitless verbal Debate, whether Conscience be a 
Faculty or a Habit. When all is examined. Conscience will 
be found to be no other than the mind of a man^ under the 
notion of a particular reference to himself and his own ac- 
tions. 

COMMENT. 

What Conscience is, and that it is the ground and antece- 
dent of human ( or self- ) consciousness, and not any modifica- 
tion of the latter, I have shown at large in a Work announced 
for the Press, and described in the Chapter following. I have 
selected the preceding Extract as ap Exercise for Reflection ; 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 77 

and because I think that in too closely following Thomas a 
Kempis, the Archbishop has strayed from his own judgment. 
The Definition, for instance, seems to say all, and in fact says no- 
thing ; for if I asked. How do you define the human mind 9 the 
answer must at least contain, if not consist of, ^the words, " a 
mind capable of Conscience.'*'* For Conscience is no synonime 
of Consciousness, nor any mere expression of the same as mod- 
ified by the particular Object. On the contrary, a Conscious- 
ness properly human, (i. e. iSe//'-consciousness), with the sense 
of moral responsibility, presupposes the Conscience, as its an- 
tecedent Condition and Ground. Lastly, the sentence, 'i It is 
a fruitless verbal Debate," is an assertion of the same com- 
plexion with the contemptuous Sneers at Verbal Criticism by 
the Contemporaries of Bentley. In Questions of Philosophy 
or Divinity, that have occupied the Learned and been the 
subjects of many successive Controversies, for one instance of 
mere Logomachy I could bring ten instances of Logodcedaly 
or verbal Legerdemain, which have perilously confirmed Prej- 
udices, and withstood the advancement of Truth, in conse- 
quence of the neglect of verbal debate, i. e. strict discussion of 
Terms. In whatever sense, however, the term Conscience 
may be used, the following aphorism is equally true and im- 
portant. It is worth noticing, likewise, that Leighton himself 
in a following page (vol. ii. p. 97), tells us, that A good Con- 
science is the Root of a good Conversation : and then quotes 
from St. Paul a text, Titus i. 15, in which the mind and the 
Conscience are expressly distinguished. 

APHORISM XLIV. leighton 

THE LIGHT OF KNOWLEDGE A NECESSARY ACCOMPANIMENT OF 
A GOOD CONSCIENCE. 

If you would have a good conscience, you must by all means 
have so much light, so much knowledge of the will of God 
as may regulate you, and show you your way, may teach you 
how to do, and speak, and think, as in His presence. 



I 



'78 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

APHORISM XLV. leightow. 

YET THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE RULE, THOUGH ACCOMPANIED 
BY AN ENDEAVOR TO ACCOMMODATE OUR CONDUCT TO THIS 
RULE, WILL NOT OF ITSELF FORM A GOOD CONSCIENCE. 

To set the outward actions right, though with an honest in- 
tention, and not so to regard and find out the inward disorder 
of the heart, whence that in the actions flows, is but to be still 
putting the index of a clock right with your finger, while it is 
foul, or out of order within, which is a continual business, and 
does no good. Oh ! but a purified conscience, a soul renewed 
and refined in its temper and affections, will make things go 
right without, in all the duties and acts of our callings. 

APHORISM XLVI. editor. 

THE DEPTH OF THE CONSCIENCE. 

How deeply seated the Conscience is in the human Soul, 
is seen in the effect which sudden Calamities produce on guil- 
ty men, even when unaided by any determinate notion or fears 
of punishment after death. The wretched Criminal, as one 
rudely awakened from a long sleep, bewildered with the new 
light, and half recollecting, half striving to recollect, a fearful 
something, he knows not what, but which he will recognize as 
soon as he hears the name, already interprets the calamities in- 
to judgments, Executions of a Sentence passed by an invisi- 
ble Judge ; as if the vast Pyre of the Last Judgment were al- 
ready kindled in an unknown Distance, and some Flashes of 
it, darting forth at intervals beyond the rest, were flying and 
lighting upon the face of his Soul. The calamity may consist 
in loss of fortune, or Character, or Reputation ; but you hear 
no regrets from him. Remorse extinguishes all Regret; and 
Remorse is the implicit Creed of the Guilty. 

APHORISM XLVII. l. and ed. 

God hath suited every creature He hath made with a con- 
venient good to which it tends, and in the obtainment of which 
it rests and is satisfied. Natural bodies have all their own 
natural place, whither, if not hindered, they move incessantly 



MORAL^ AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 79 

till they be in it ; and they declare, by resting there, that they 
are (as I may say) where they would be. Sensitive creatures 
are carried to seek a sensitive good, as agreeable to their 
rank in being, and, attaining that, aim no further. Now, in 
this is the excellency of Man, that he is made capable of a 
communion with his Maker, and, because capable of it, is un- 
satisfied without it ; the soul, being cut out ( so to speak ) to 
that largeness, cannot be filled with less. Though he is fallen 
from his right to that good, and from all right desire of it, yet, 
not from a capacity of it, no, nor from a necessity of it, for the 
answering and filling of his capacity. 

Though the heart once gone from God turns continually fur- 
ther away from him, and moves not towards Him till it be re- 
newed, jet, even in that wandering, it retains that natural re- 
lation to God, as its centre, that it hath no true rest elsewhere, 
nor can by any means find it. It is made for Him, and is there- 
fore still restless till it meet with him. 

It is true, the natural man takes much pains to quiet his 
heart by other things, and digests many vexations with hopes 
of contentment in the end and accomplishment of some de- 
sign he hath ; but still the heart misgives. Many times he at- 
tains not the thing he seeks ; but if he do, yet he never at- 
tains the satisfaction he seeks and expects in it, but only learns 
from that to desire something further, and still hunts on after 
a fancy, drives his own shadow before him, and never over- 
takes it ; and if he did, yet it is but a shadow. And so, in 
running from God, besides the sad end, he carries an interwo- 
ven punishment with his sin, the natural disquiet and vexa- 
tion of his spirit, fluttering to and fro, and finding no rest for 
the sole of his foot ; the waters of inconstancy and vanity cov- 
ering the whole face of the earth. 

These things are too gross and heavy. The soul, the im- 
mortal soul, descended from heaven, must either be more hap- 
py, or remain miserable. The Highest, the Increated Spirit, 
is the proper good, the Father of spirits, that pure and full 
good, which raises the soul above itself; whereas all other 
things draw it down below itself. So, then, it is never well 



80 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

with the soul, but when it is near unto God, yea, in its union 
with Him, manied to Him : mismatching itself elsewhere, it 
hath never any thing but shame and sorrow. All that forsake 
Thee shall be ashamed^ says the Prophet, Jer. xvii. 13: and 
the Psalmist ; They that are far off from thee shall perish, Psal. 
Ixxiii. 27. And this is indeed our natural miserable condition, 
and it is often expressed this way, by estrangedness and dis- 
tance from God. 

The same sentiments are to be found in the works of Pagan 
Philosophers and Moralists. Well then may they be made a 
Subject of Reflection in our days. And well may the pious 
Deist, if such a character now exists, reflect that Christianity 
alone both teaches the way, and provides the means, of fulfil- 
ling the obscure promises of this great Instinct for all men, 
which the Philosophy of boldest Pretensions confined to the 
sacred Few. 

APHORISM XLVIII. leightox. 



OF THE WORLD. 

The heart may be engaged in a little business as much, if 
thou watch it not, as in many and great affairs. A man may 
drown in a little brook or pool, as well as in a great. river, if 
he be down and plunge himself into it, and put his head un- 
der water. Some care thou must have, that thou mayest not 
care. Those things that are thorns indeed, thou must make a 
hedge of them, to keep out those temptations that accompany 
sloth, and extreme want that waits on it ; but let them be the 
hedge : suffer them not to grow within the garden. 

APHORISM XLIX. leighton. 

ON CTURCH-GOING, AS A PART OF RELIGIOUS MORALITY, WHEN 
NOT IN REFERENCE TO A SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 

It is a strange folly in multitudes of us, to set ourselves no 
mark, to propound no end in the hearing of the Gospel. The 
merchant sails not merely that he may sail, but for traffic, and 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS APHORISMS. 81 

traffics that he may be rich. The husbandman plows not 
merely to keep himself busy, with no further end, but plows 
that he may sow, and sows that he may reap with advantage. 
And shall we do the most excellent and fruitful work fruitless- 
ly—hear only to hear, and look no further ? This is indeed 
a great vanity, and a great misery, to lose that labour, and 
gam nothing by it, which duly used, would be of all others 
most advantageous and gainful : and yd all meetings are full 
of this ! 

APHORISM L. LEIGHTON. 

ON THE HOPES AND SELF-SATISFACTION OF A RELIGIOUS MORA- 
LIST, INDEPENDENT OF A SPIRITUAL FAITH— ON WHAT ARE 
THEY GROUNDED ? 

There have been great disputes one way or another, about 
the merit of good works ; but I truly think they who have la- 
boriously engaged in them have been very idly, though very 
eagerly, employed about nothing, since the more sober of the 
schoolmen themselves acknowledge there can be no such thino- 
as meriting from the blessed God, in the human, or, to speak 
more accurately, in any created nature whatsoever: nay so 
far from any possibility of merit, there can be no room for re- 
ward any otherwise than of the sovereign pleasure and gra- 
cious kindness of God ; and the more ancient writers, when 
they use the word merit, mean nothing by it but a certain cor- 
relate to that reward which God both promises and bestows of 
mere grace and benignity. Otherwise, in order to constitute 
what IS properly called merit, many things must concur, which 
no man m his senses will presume to attribute to human 
works, though ever so excellent ; particularly, that the thing 
done must not previously be matter of debt, and that it be en- 
tire or our own act, unassisted by foreign aid ; it must also be 
perfectly good, and it must bear an adequate proportion to the 
reward claimed in consequence of it. If all tliese things do 
not concur, the act cannot possibly amount to merit, Whereas 
I think no one will venture to assert, that any .-one of these 

11 



82 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

can take place in any human action whatever. But why 
should I enlarge here, when one single circumstance over- 
throws all those titles : the most righteous of mankind would 
not be able to stand, if his works were weighed in the balance 
of strict justice ; how much less then could they deserve that 
immense glory which is now in question ! Nor is this to be 
denied only concerning the unbeliever and the sinner, but 
concerning the righteous and pious believer, who is not only 
free from all the guilt of his former impenitence and lebellion 
but endowed w ith the gift of the Spirit. " For the time is 
come that judgment must begin at the house of God : and if 
it first begin at as, wh at shall the end be of them that obey 
not the Gospel of God ? And if the righteous scarcely be 
saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ?" 1 Pe- 
ter iv. 17, 18. The Apostle's interrogation expresses the 
most vehement negation, and signifies that no mortal, in 
whatever degree he is placed, if he be called to the strict 
examination of Divine Justice, without daily and repeated for- 
giveness could be able to keep his standing, and much less 
could he arise to that glorious height. ' That merit,' says 
Bernard, * on which my hope relies, consists in these three 
' things ; the love of adoption, the truth of the promise, and 
* the power of its performance.' This is the threefold cord 
which cannot be broken. 

COMMENT. 

Often have I heard it said by advocates for the Socinian 
Scheme — True ! we are all sinners ; but even in the Old Tes- 
tament God has promised Forgiveness on Repentance. One 
of the Fathers ( I forget which ) supplies the Retort- — True 1 
God has promised Pardon on Penitence : but has he promised 
Penitence on Sin ? — He that repenteth shall be forgiven : but 
where is it said. He that sinneth shall repent ? But Repen- 
tance, perhaps, the Repentance required in Scripture, the Pas- 
sing into a new mind, into a new and contrary Principle of 
Action, this Metanoia[40], is in the Sinner's own powder ? 



MORAI, AND RELIGIOUS .APHORISMS. 83 

at his own Liking ? He has but to open his eyes to the sin, 
and the Tears are close at hand to wash it away ! — Verily, 
the exploded Tenet of Transiibstantiation is scarcely at great- 
er variance with the common Sense and Experience of Man- 
kind, or borders more closely on a contradiction in terms, than 
this volunteer Transmentation, this Self-change, as the easy 
[41] means of Self-salvation! But the Reflections of our 
evangeUcal Author on this subject will appropriately com- 
mence the Aphorisms relating to Spiritual Religion. 



ELEMENTS 

OF 

RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY. 

PRELIMINARY TO THE 

APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION, 



Philip eaith unto him : Lord show us the Fatlier, and it sufficcth us. 
Jesus saith unto him, He that hath seen ine hath seen the Fatlier : and 
how sayest thou then, Shoiv us the Father ? Believest thou not, tliat I am 
in the Father and the Father m me ? And I will pray the Father and he 
shall give you another Comforter, even the Spirit of Tnith : whom the 
world camwt receive, hecause it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. But 
ye know him (for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you). And in that 
day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me and I in you. 
Jolm xiv. 8, 0, 10, 1(5, 17, 20. 



PRELIMINARY. 



If there be aught Spiritual in Man, the Will must be such. - 

If there be a Will, there must be Spirituality in Man. 

I suppose both positions granted. The Reader admits the 
reality of the power, agency, or mode of Being expressed in 
the term, Spirit ; and the actual existence of a Will. He sees 
clearly, that the idea of the former is necessary to the con- 
ceivability o( the latter ; and that, vice versa, in asserting the 
fact of the latter he presumes and instances the truth of the 
former — just as in our common and received Systems of Nat- 
ural Philosophy, the Being of imponderable Matter is assu- 
med to render the Lode-stone intelligible, and the Fact of 
the Lode-stone adduced to prove the reality of imponderable 
Matter. 

In short, I suppose the Reader, whom I now invite to the 
third and last Division of the work, already disposed to reject 
for himself and his human Brethren the insidious title of 
" Nature's noblest J^iima/,," or to retort it as the unconscious 
Irony of the Epicurean Poet on the animalizing tendency of 
his own philosophy. I suppose him convinced, that there is 
more in man than can be rationally referred to the life of Na- 
ture and the Mechanism of Organization ; that he has a will 
not included in this mechanism ; and that the Will is in an es- 
pecial and pre-eminent sense the spiritual part of our Human- 

Unless then we have some distinct notion of the Will, and 
some acquaintance with the prevalent errors respecting the 
same, an insight into the nature of Spiritual Rehgion is scarce- 
ly possible ; and our reflections on the particular truths and 
evidences of a spiritual State will remain obscure, perplexed. 



88 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

and unsafe. To place my reader on this requisite Vantage- 
ground, is the purpose of the following Exposition. 

We have begun, as in geometry, with defining our Terms ; 
and we proceed, like the Geometricians, with stating our 
postulates; the difieience being, that the Postulates of Ge- 
ometry no man can deny, those of Moral Science are such as 
no good man will deny. For it is not in our powder to dis- 
claim our Nature, as sentient Beings ; but it is in our power to 
disclaim our Prerogative as Moral Beings. It is possible ( barely 
possible, I admit) that a man may have remained ignorant or 
unconscious of the Moral Law within him : and a man need 
only pei-sist in disobeying the Law of Conscience to make ii 
possible for himself to deny its existence, or to reject and re- 
pel it as a phantom of Superstition. Were it otherwise the 
Creed would stand in the same relation to Morality as the Mul- 
tiplication Table. 

This then is the distinction of Moral Philosophy — not that 
I begin with one or more Assumptions , for this is common to 
all science ; but — that I assume a something, the proof of 
which no man can give to another, yet every man may find for 
himself. If any man assert, that he can not find it, I am bound 
to disbelieve him ! I cannot do otherwise without unsettling 
the very foundations of my own moral Nature. For I either 
find it as an essential of the Humanity common to Him and 
Me : or I have not found it at all, except as an Hypochon- 
driast finds Glass Legs. If, on the other hand, he ivill not 
find it, he excommunicates himself. He forfeits his personal 
Rights, and becomes a Things i. e. one who may rightfully be 
employed or used^ as a [42] means to an end, against his will, 
and without regard to his interest. 

All the significant objections of the Materialist and Neces- 
sitarian are contained in the term. Morality, all the Objections 
of the Infidel in the term. Religion ? The very terms, I say 
imply a something granted^ which the Objection supposes not 
granted. The term p?'esumes w^hat the Objection denies, and 
in denying ^^r^sumes the contrary. For it is most important 
to observe, that the Reasoners on hoth sides commence by ta- 



PRELIMINARY. 89 

king something for granted, our Assent to which they ask or 
demand : i. e. both set off with an Assumption in the form of 
a Postulate. But the Epicurean assumes what according to 
himself he neither is nor can be under any obligation to as- 
sume, and demands what he can have no right to demand : 
for he denies the reality of all moral Obhgation, the existence 
of any Right. If he use the words^ Right and Obhgation, he 
does it deceptively, and means only Compulsion and Power. 
To overthrow the Faith in aught higher or other than Nature 
and physical Necessity, is the very purpose of hi^ argument. 
He desires you only to take for granted, that all reality is in- 
cluded in Nature, and he may then safely defy you to ward off 
his conclusion — that nothing is concluded ! 

But as he cannot morally demand, neither can he rationally 
expect, your Assent to this premise : for he cannot be ignorant 
that the best and greatest of Men have devoted their lives to 
the enforcement of the contrary ; that the vast majority of the 
human race in all ages and in all nations have believed in the 
contrary ; and that there is not a language on Earth, in which 
he could argue, for ten minutes, in support of his scheme with- 
out sliding into words and phrases, that imply the contrary. It 
has been said, that the Arabic has a thousand names for a Li- 
on ; but this would be a trifle compared with the number of 
superfluous words and useless Synonimes that would be found 
in an index Expurgatorius of any European Dictionary con- 
structed on the principles of a consistent and strictly conse- 
quential MateriaHsm ! 

The Christian likewi^;e grounds his philosophy on asser- 
tions ; but with the best of all reasons for making them— viz. 
that he ought so to do. He asserts what he can neither prove 
nor account for, nor himself comprehend ; but with the strong- 
est of inducements, that of understanding thereby whatever 
else it most concerns him to understand aright. And yet his 
Assertions have nothing in them of Theory or Hypothesis ; 
but are in immediate reference to three ultimate Facts; name- 
ly, the Reality of the law of conscience ; the existence of a 
RESPONSIBLE WILL, as the subject of that law; and lastlv the 



90 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



existence of Evil — of Evil essentially such, not by accident 
of outward circumstances, not derived from its physical con- 
sequences, or from any cause, out of itself. The first is a 
Fact of Consciousness ; the second a Fact of Reason neces- 
sarily concluded from the first ; and the third a Fact of Histo- 
ry interpreted by both. 

Omnia exeunt in mysterium, says a Schoolman: i. e. There 
is nothing, the absolute ground of which is not a Mystery, 
The contrary were ^deed a contradiction in terms : for how 
can that, which is td explain all things, be susceptible of an 
explanation ? It would be to suppose the same thing first and 
second at the same time. 

If I rested here, I should merely have placed my Creed in 
direct ^opposition to that of the Necessitarians, who assume 
( for observe both parties begin in an Assumption, and cannot 
do otherwise) that motives act on the Will, as bodies act on 
bodies ; and that whether mind and matter are essentially the 
same or essentially different, they are both alike under one 
and the same law of compulsory Causation. But this is far 
from exhausting my intention. I mean at the same time to 
oppose the Disciples of Shaftesbury and those who, substitu- 
ting one Faith for another, have been well called the pious 
Deists of the last Century, in order to distinguish them from 
the Infidels of the present age, who ^erswoc^e themselves, (for 
the thing itself is not possible ) that they reject all Faith. I 
declare my dissent from these too, because they imposed upon 
themselves an Idea for a Reality : a most sublime Idea indeed, 
and so necessary to Human Nature, that without it no Virtue 
is conceivable ; but stilt an Idea ! In contradiction to their 
splendid but delusory Tenets,' I profess a deep conviction that 
Man was and is a fallen Creature, not by accidents of bodily 
constitution, or any other cause, which human Wisdom in a 
course of age« might be supposed capable of removing ; but 
diseased in his Will, in that Will which is the true and only 
strict synonime of the Word, I, or the intelligent Self., Thus 
at each of these two opposite Roads ( the Philosophy of Hob- 
bes, and that of Shaftesbury), I have placed a directing Post, 



PRELIMINARY. 91 

informing my Fellow-travellers, that on neither of these 
Roads can they see the Truths to which I wx)uld direct their 
attention. 

But the place of starting was at the meeting oi four Roads, 
and one only was the right road. I proceed therefore to pre- 
clude the opinion of those likewise, who indeed agree with 
me as to the moral Responsibility of Man in opposition to Hob- 
bes and the Anti-moralists, and that He was a fallen Creature, 
essentially diseased, in opposition to Shaftesbury and the Mis- 
interpreters of Plato ; but who differ from me in exaggerating 
the diseased iveakness of the Will into an absolute privation 
of all Freedom, thereby making moral responsibility, not a 
mystery above comprehension, but a direct contradiction, of 
which we do distinctly comprehend the absurdity. Among the 
consequences of this Doctrine, is that direful one of swallow- 
ing up all the Attributes of the Supreme Being in the one 
Attribute of Infinite Power, and thence deducing that Things 
are good and wise because they were created, and not created 
through Wisdom and Goodness. Thence too the awful Attri- 
bute of Justice is explained away into a mere right of abso- 
lute Property ; the sacred distinction between Things and 
Persons is erased ; and the selection of Persons for Virtue and 
Vice in this Life, and for eternal Happiness or Misery in the 
next, is represented as the result of a mere Will^ acting in 
the blindness and solitude of its own Infinity. The Title of a 
Work written by the great and pious Boyle is " Of the Awe, 
which the human mind owes to the supreme Reason." This, 
in the language of these gloomy Doctors, must be translated 
into — "the horror, which a Being capable of eternal Pleas- 
ure or Pain is compelled to feel at the idea of an infinite Pow- 
er, about to inflict the latter on an immense majority of hu- 
man souls, without any power on their part either to prevent 
it or the actions which are (not indeed its causes but) its as- 
signed signals^ and preceding links of the same iron chain ! 

Against these Tenets I maintain, that a Will conceived se- 
parate from Intelligence is a Non-entity, and a mere Phantasm 
of Abstraction ; and that a Will, the state of which does in no 



92 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

sense originate in its own act, is an absolute contradiction. It 
might be an instinct, an Impulse, a plastic Power, and if ac- 
companied with consciousness, a Desire ; but a Will it could 
not be ! And this every human being knows with equal clear- 
ness^ though different minds may reflect on it with different de- 
grees of distinctness ; for who would not smile at the notion 
of a Rose willing to put forth its Buds and expand them into 
Flowers ? That such a phrase would be deemed a poetic Li- 
cence proves the difference in the things : for all metaphors 
are grounded on an apparent likeness of things essentially dif- 
ferent. I utterly disclaim the idea, that any human Intelli- 
gence, with whatever power it might manifest itself, is alone 
adequate to the office of restoring health to the Will : but at 
the same time I deem it impious and absurd to hold, that the 
Creator would have given us the faculty of reason, or that 
the Redeemer would in so many varied forms of Argument 
and Persuasion have appealed to it, if it had been either totally 
useless or wholly impotent. Lastly, I find all these several 
Truths reconciled and united in the belief, that the imperfect 
human understanding can be effectually exerted only in sub- 
ordination to, and in a dependent alliance with, the means and 
aidances supplied by the all-perfect and Supreme Reason ; but 
that under these conditions it is not only an admissible, but a 
necessary instrument of ameliorating both ourselves and others. 



We may now proceed to our reflections on the Spirit of 
Religion. The first three or four Aphorisms I have selected 
from the Theological Works of Dr. Henry More, a contem- 
porary of Archbishop Leighton's, and like him, held in suspi- 
cion by the Calvinists of that time as a Latitudinarian and 
Platonizing Divine, and probably, like him, would have been 
arraigned as a Calvinist by the Latitudinarians ( I cannot say, 
Platonists) of this Day, had the suspicion been equally ground- 
less. One or two the Editor has ventured to add from his 
own Rp^ections. The purpose, however, is the same in all — 



PRELIMINARY. 93 

that of declaring, in the first place, what Religion is not, what 
is not a Religious Spirit, and what are not to be deemed in- 
fluences of the Spirit. If after these Disclaimers the Editor 
shall without proof be charged by any with favouring the er- 
rors of the Familists, Vanists, Seekers, Behmenists or by 
whatever other names Church History records the poor be- 
wildered Enthusiasts, who in the swarming time of our Repub- 
lic turned the facts of the Gospel into allegories, and superse- 
ded the written Ordinances of Christ by a pretended Teach- 
ing and sensible Presence of the Spirit, he appeals against 
them to their own consciences, as wilful Slanderers. But if with 
proof, I have in these Aphorisms signed and sealed my own 
Condemnation. 

" These things I could not forbear to write. For the Light 
within me, that is, my Reason and Conscience, does assure me 
that the Ancient and Apostolic Faith according to the histo- 
rical Meaning thereof, and in the literal sense of the Creed, is 
solid and true : and that Familism in its Fairest form and un- 
der whatever disguise is a smooth Tale to seduce the simple 
from their Allegiance to Christ." 

Henry More's Theological Works, p. 372. 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



And here it will not be impertinent to observe, that what the eldest 
Greek Philosophy entitled the Reason (NOT2:) and ideas^ the Philosophic 
Apostle names the Spirit and Truths spiritually discerned : while to those 
who in tlie pride of Leaniuig or in the over- weening meanness of mod- 
em Metaphysics decry the doctiine of the Spirit in Man and its possible 
communion with the Holy Spirit, as vulgar enthusiasm ! I submit tlie fol- 
lowing Sentences from a Pagan Philosopher, a Nobleman and a Minister 
of State — "Ita dico, Lucili ! sacer intra nos Spiritus sedet, malonnn 
bonorumque nostrorum observator et custos. Hie prout a nobis tractatus 
est, ita nos ipse tractat. Bonus vir sine Deo nemo est." Seneca. 



APHORISMS OJV SPIRITUAL RELIGION, 



APHORISM I. H. MORE. 

Every one is to give a reason of his faith : but Priests 
and Ministers more punctually than any, their province being 
to make good every sentence of the Bible to a rational en- 
quirer into the truth of these oracles. Enthusiasts find it an 
easy thing to heat the fancies of unlearned and unreflecting 
Hearers ; but when a sober man would be satisfied of the 
Grounds from whence they speak, he shall not have one syl- 
lable or the least title of a pertinent answer. Only they will 
talk big of THE SPIRIT, and inveigh against Reason with bitter 
Reproaches, calling it carnal or fleshly, though it be indeed no 
soft flesh, but enduring and penetrant steel, even the sword of 
the Spirit, and such as pierces to the heait. 

APHORISM II. H. MORE. 

There are two very bad things in this resolving of men's 
Faith and Practice into the immediate suggestion of a Spirit 
not acting on our Understandings, or rather into the illumina- 
tion of such a Spirit as they can give no account of, such as 
does not enlighten their reason or enable them to render their 
doctrine intelligible to others. First, it defaces and makes 
useless that part of the Image of God in us, which we call 
REASON : and secondly, it takes away that advantage which 
raises Christianity above all other Religions, that she dare ap- 
peal to so solid a faculty. 

APHORISM IIL EDITOR. 

It is the glory of the Gospel Charter and the Christian Con- 
stitution, that its Author and Head is the Spirit of Truth, Es- 

13 



98 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

sential Reason as well as Absolute and Incomprehensible Will. 
Like a just Monarch, he refers even his own causes to the 
Judgment of his high Courts. — He has his King's Bench in 
the Reason, his Court of Equity in the Conscience ; that the 
representative of his Majesty and universal Justice, this the 
nearest to the King's heart, and the Dispenser of his particu- 
lar Decrees. He has likewise his Court of Common Pleas in 
the Understanding, his Court of Exchequer in the Prudence. 
The Laws are his Laws. And though by Signs and Miracles 
he has mercifully condescended to interline here and there 
with his own hand the great Statute-book, which he had dic- 
tated to his Amanuensis, Nature : yet has he been graciously 
pleased to forbid our receiving as the King^s Mandates aught 
that is not stamped with the Great Seal of the Conscience, and 
countersigned by the Reason [43]. 

APHORISM IV. 

ON AN UNLEARNED MINISTRY, UNDER PRETENCE OF A CALL OF 
THE SPIRIT, AND INWARD GRACES SUPERSEDING OUTWARD 
HELPS. 

Tell me. Ye high-flown Perfectionists^ Ye Boasters of the 
Light within you, could the highest perfection of your inward 
Light ever show to you the History of past Ages, the state 
of the World at present, the Knowledge of Arts and Tongues 
without Books or Teachers ? How then can you understand 
the Providence of God, or the age, the purpose, the fulfilment 
of Prophecies, or distinguish such as have been fulfilled from 
those to the fulfilment of which we are to look forward ? How 
can you judge concerning the authenticity and uncorrupted- 
ness of the Gospels, and the other sacred Scriptures ? And 
how without this knowledge can you support the truth of 
Christianity } How can you either have, or give a reason for 
the faith which you profess ? This Light within, that loves 
Darkness, and would exclude those excellent Gifts of God to 
Mankind, Knowledge and Understanding, what is it but a sullen 
self-sufficiency within you, engendering contempt of Superi- 
ors, pride and a Spirit of Division, and inducing you to reject 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 99 

for yourselves and to undervalue in others the Helps without^ 
which the Grace of God has provided and appointed for his 
Church — nay^ to make them grounds or pretexts of your dis- 
like or suspicion of Christ's Ministers who have fruitfully 
availed themselves of the Helps afforded them ? — Henry 
More. 

APHORISM V. 
- There are Wanderers, whom neither pride nor a perverse 
humour have led astray ; and whose condition is such, that I 
think few more worthy of a man's best directions. For the 
more imperious Sects having put such unhandsome vizards on 
Christianity, and the sincere Milk of the Word having been 
every where so sophisticated by the humours and inventions of 
men, it has driven these anxious Melancholists to seek for a 
Teacher that cannot deceive, the Voice of the eternal Word 
within them ; to which if they be faithful, they assure them- 
selves it will be faithful to them in return. Nor would this 
be a groundless Presumption,, if they had sought this Voice in 
the Reason and the Conscience, with the Scripture articulating 
the same, instead of giving heed to their Fancy and mistaking 
bodily disturbances, and the vapors resulting therefrom, for in- 
spiration and the teaching of the Spirit.— Henry More. 

APHORISM VI. 
When every man is his own end, all things will come to a 
bad end. Blessed were those days, when every man thought 
himself rich and fortunate by the good success of the public 
wealth and glory. We want public Souls, we want them. I 
speak it with compassion ; there is no sin and abuse in the 
world that affects my thought so much. Every man thinks, 
that he is a whole Commonwealth in his private Family. Om- 
nes quae sua sunt quaerunt. All seek their own.— Bishop 
Hacket's Sermons, p. 449. 

comment. 
Selfishness is common to all ages and countries. In all 
ages Self-seeking is the Rule, and self-sacrifice the Exception. 



100 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

But if to seek our private advantage in harmony with, and by 
the furtherance of, the public prosperity, and to derive a por- 
tion of our happiness from sympathy with the prosperity of 
our fellow men — if this be Public Spirit, it would be morose 
and querulous to pretend that there is any want of it in this 
country and at the present time. On the contrary, the num- 
ber of " public souls" and the general readiness to contribute 
to the public good, in science and in religion, in patriotism 
and in philanthropy, stand prominent [44] among the charac- 
teristics of this and the preceding generation. The habit of 
referring Actions and Opinions to fixed laws ; Convictions 
rooted in Principles ; Thought, Insight, System ; these, had 
the good Bishop lived in our times, would have been his De- 
siderata, and the theme of his Complaints. " We want think- 
ing Souls, we want them^ 

This and the three preceding extracts will suffice as precau- 
tionary Aphorisms. And here again, the Reader may exem- 
plify the great advantages to be obtained from the habit of tra- 
cing the proper meaning and history of Words. We need 
only recollect the common and idiomatic phrases in which the 
word "Spirit" occurs in a physical or n\aterial sense (ex. gr. 
fruit has lost its spirit and flavour), to be convinced that its 
property is to improve, enliven, actuate some other thing, not 
to be or constitute a thing in its own name. ^ The enthusiast 
may find one exception to this where the material itself is 
called Spirit. And when he calls to mind, how this spirit acts 
when taken alone by the unhappy persons who in their first 
exultation will boast that it is Meat, Drink, Fire, and Clo- 
thing to them, all in one — when he reflects that its properties 
are to inflame, intoxicate, madden, with exhaustion, lethargy, 
and atrophy for the Sequels— well for him, if in some lucid 
interval he should fairly put the question to his own mind, 
how far this is analogous to his own case, and whether the 
Exception does not confirm the Rule. The Letter without 
the Spirit killeth ; but does it follow, that the Spirit is to kill 
the Letter ? To kill that which it is its appropriate office to 
enliven ? 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 101 

However, where the Ministry is not invaded, and the plain 
sense of the Scriptures is left undisturbed, and the Believer 
looks for the suggestion of the Spirit only or chiefly in apply- 
ing particular passages to his own individual case and exigen- 
cies ; though in this there may be much weakness, some de- 
lusion and imminent Danger of more, I cannot but join with 
Henry More in avowing, that I feel knit to such a man in the 
bonds of a common faith far more closely, than to those who 
receive neither the Letter, nor the Spirit, turning the one into 
metaphor and oriental hyperbole, in order to explain away the 
other into the influence of motives suggested by their own 
understandings, and realized by their own strength. 



APHORISMS 

ON THAT 

WHICH IS INDEED SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



In the selection of the Extracts that form the remainder of 
this Volume and of the Comments affixed, the Editor had the 
following Objects principally in view. First, to exhibit the 
true and scriptural meaning and intent of several Articles of 
Faith, that are rightly classed among the Mysteries and pecu- 
liar Doctrines of Christianity.- Secondly, to show the perfect 
rationality of these Doctrines, and their freedom from all just 
Objection when examined by their proper Organ, the Reason 
and Conscience of Man. Lastly, to exhibit from the Works 
of Leighton, who perhaps of all our learned protestant The- 
ologians best deserves the title of a Spiritual Divine, an in- 
structive and affecting picture of the contemplations, reflec- 
tions, conflicts, consolations and monitory experiences of a 
philosophic and richly-gifted mind, amply stored with all the 
knowledge that Books and long intercourse with men of the 
most discordant characters can give, under the convictions, 
impressions, and habits of a Spiritual Religion. 

To obviate a possible disappointment in any of my Readers, 
who may chance to be engaged in theological studies, it may 
be well to notice, that in vindicating the peculiar tenets of our 
Faith, I have not entered on the Doctrine of the Trinity, or 
the still profounder Mystery of the Origin of Moral Evil — 
and this for the reasons following: 1. These Doctrines are 
not (strictly speaking) subjects of Reflection, in the proper 



104 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

sense of this word : and both of them demand a power and 
persistency of Abstraction, and a previous discipline in the 
highest forms of human thought, which it would be unwise, 
if not presumptuous, to expect from any, who require " Aids 
to Reflection," or would be likely to seek them in the present 
Work. 2. In my intercourse with men of various ranks and 
ages, 1 have found the far larger number of serious and inqui- 
ring Persons little if at all disquieted by doubts respecting 
Articles of Faith, that are simply above their comprehension. 
It is only where the Belief required of them jars with their 
moral feelings ; where a doctrine in the sense, in which they 
have been taught to receive it, appears to contradict their 
clear notions of Right and Wrong, or to be at variance with 
the divine Attributes of Goodness and Justice ; that these men 
are surprised, perplexed, and alas ! not seldom offended and 
alienated. Such are the Doctrines of Arbitrary Election and 
Reprobation ; the Sentence to everlasting Torment by an 
eternal and necessitating Decree ; vicarious Atonement, and 
the necessity of the Abasement, Agony and ignominious Death 
of a most holy and meritorious Person, to appease the Wrath 
of God. Now it is more especially for such Persons, unwil- 
ling Sceptics, who believing earnestly ask help for their un- 
belief, that this Volume was compiled, and the Comments 
written : and therefore, to the Scripture doctrines, intended 
by the above mentioned, my principal attention has been di- 
rected. 

But lastly, the whole Scheme of the Christian Faith, inclu- 
ding all the Articles of Belief common to the Greek and Lat- 
in, the Roman and the Protestant Church, with the threefold 
proof, that it is ideally ^ morally^ and historically true, will be 
found exhibited and vindicated in a proportionally larger 
Work, the Principal Labour of my Life since Manhood, and 
which I am now preparing for the Press under the title. As- 
sertion of Religion, as necessarily involving Revelation ; and 
of Christianity, as the only Revelation of permanent and uni- 
versal validity. 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 105 

APHORISM I. LKIGHTON. 

Where, if not in Christ, is the Power that can persuade a 
Sinner to return, that can bnng home a heart to God 9 

Common mercies of God, though they have a leading fac- 
ulty to repentance, (Rom. ii. 4.) yet, the rebellious heart will 
not be led by them. The judgments of God, public or per- 
sonal, though they ought to drive us to God, yet the heart, 
unchanged, runs the further from God. Do we not see it by 
ourselves and other sinners about us ? They look not at all 
towards Him who smites, much less do they return ; or if any 
more serious thoughts of returning arise upon the surprise of 
an affliction, how soon vanish they, either the stroke abating, 
or the heart, by time, growing hard and senseless under it ! 
Leave Christ out, I say, and all other means work not this 
way ; neither the works nor the word of God sounding daily 
in his ear. Return^ return. Let the noise of the rod speak it 
too, and both join together to make the cry the louder, yet 
the wicked will do wickedly^ Dan. xii. 10. 



COMMENT. 



By the phrase "in Christ," I mean all the supernatural Aids 
vouchsafed and conditionally promised in the Christian Dis- 
pensation : and among them the Spirit of Truth, which the 
world cannot receive, were it only that the knowledge of 
spiritual Truth is of necessity immediate and intuitive : and 
the World or Natural Man possesses no higher intuitions than 
those of the pure Sense^ which are the subjects of Mathemat- 
ical Science. But Aids, observe ! Therefore, not by the 
Will of Man alone ; but neither without the Will. The doc- 
trine of modern Calvinism, as laid down by Jonathan Ed- 
wards and the late Dr. Williams, which represents a Will ab- 
solutely passive, clay in the hands of a Potter, destroys all Will, 
takes away its essence and definition, as effectually as in say- 
ing—This Circle is square — I should deny the figure to be a 
Circle at all. It was in strict consistency therefore, that these 
Writers supported the Necessitarian Scheme, and made the 

14 



106 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

relation of Cause and Effect the Law of the Universe, sub- 
jecting to its Mechanism the moral World no less than the ma- 
terial or physical. It follows, that all is Nature [45]. Thus, 
though few writers use the tenn Spirit more frequently, they 
in effect deny its existence, and evacuate the term of all its 
proper meaning. With such a system not the Wit of Man 
nor all the Theodices ever framed by human ingenuity, before 
and since the attempt of the celebrated Leibnitz, can recon- 
cile the Sense of Responsibility, nor the fact of the difference 
in kind between regret and remorse. The same compul- 
sion of Consequence drove the Fathers of Modern (or Pseu- 
do-)Calvinism to the origination of Holiness in Power, of Jus- 
tice in Right of Property, and whatever outrages on the com- 
mon sense and moral feelings of Mankind they have sought to 
cover, under the fair name of Sovet^eign Grace. 

I will not take on me to defend sundry harsh and inconven- 
ient Expressions in the Works of Calvin. Phrases equally 
strong and Assertions not less rash and startling are no rari- 
ties in the Writings of Luther : for Catachresis was the fa- 
vourite Figure of Speech in that age. But let not the opin- 
ions of either on this most fundamental Subject be confound- 
ed with the New-England System, now entitled Calvinistic. 
The fact is simply this. Luther considered the Pretensions 
to Free-will boastful, and better suited to the budge Doctors 
of the Stoic Fur, than to the Preachers of the Gospel, whose 
great Theme is the Redemption of the Will from Slavery ; 
the restoration of the Will to perfect Freedom being the end 
and consummation of the redemptive Process, and the same 
with the entrance of the Soul into Glory, i. e. its union with 
Christ : "glory" (John xvii. 5.) being one of the names of 
the Spiritual Messiah. Prospectively to this we are to under- 
stand the words of our Lord, At that day ye shall know that 
I am in my Father, and ye in me, John xiv. 20 ; the freedont 
of a fmite will being possible under this condition only, that it 
has become one with the will of God. Now as the difference 
of a captive and enslaved Will, and no Will at all, such is tlie 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 107 

difference between the Luthcranism of Calvin and the Cal- 
vinism of Jonathan Edwards. 

APHORISM II. LEIGHTON. 

There is nothing in religion farther out of Nature's reach, 
and more remote from the* natural man's liking and believing, 
than the doctrine of Redemption bj a Saviour, and by a cru- 
cified Saviour. It is comparatively easy to persuade men of 
the necessity of an amendment of conduct ; it is more diffi- 
cult to make them see the necessity of Repentance in the 
Gospel sense, the necessity of a change in the principle of ac- 
tion ; but to convince men of the necessity of the Death of 
Christ is the most difficult of all. And yet the first is but 
varnish and white-wash without the second ; and the second 
but a barren notion without the last. Alas ! of those who ad- 
mit the doctrine in words, how large a number evade it in fact 
and empty it of all its substance and efficacy, making the effect 
the efficient cause, or attributing their election to Salvation to 
a supposed Foresight of their Faith, and Obedience. But it is 
most vain to imagine a faith in such and such men, which be- 
ing foreseen by God, determined him to elect them for salva- 
tion ; were it only that nothing at all is future, or can have 
this imagined futurition, but as it is decreed, and because it is 
decreed by God so to be. 

COMMENT. 

No impartial person, competently acquainted with the His- 
tory of the Reformation, and the works of the earlier protest- 
ant Divines at home and abroad, even to the close of Eliza- 
beth's reign, will deny that the Doctrines of Calvin on Re- 
demption and the natural state of fallen man, are in all essen- 
tial points the same as those of Luther, Zuinglius, and the 
first reformers collectively. These doctrines have, however, 
since the re-establishment of the Episcopal Church at the re- 
turn of the second Charles, been as generally [46] exchanged 
for what is commonly entitled Arminianism, but which, taken 
as a complete and explicit Scheme of Belief, it would be both 



108 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

historically and theologically more accurate to call Grotianisin, 
or Christianity according to Grotius. The change was not, we 
may readily believe, effected without a struggle. In the Ro- 
mish Church this latitudinarian System, patronized by the Je- 
suits, was manfully resisted by Jansenius, Arnauld, and Pas- 
cal ; in our own Church by the Bishops Davenant, Sanderson, 
Hall, and the Archbishops Usher and Leighton : and in the 
latter half of the preceding Aphorism the Reader has a spe- 
cimen of the reasonings by which Leighton strove to invalidate 
or counterpoise the reasonings of the Innovators. 

Passages of this sort are, however, of rare occurrence in 
Leighton's works. Happily for thousands, he was more use- 
fully employed in making his Readers feel, that the Doctrines 
in question, scripturally treated, and taken as co-organized 
parts of a great organic whole, need no such reasonings. 
And bettt^i still would it have been, had he left them altogeth- 
er for those, who severally detaching the great Features of 
Revelation from the living Context of Scripture, do by that 
very act destroy their life and purpose. And then, like the 
eyes of the Aranea prodigiosa[47] they become clouded micro- 
scopes, to exaggerate and distort all the other parts and propor- 
tions. No offence will be occasioned, I trust, by the frank 
avowal that I have given to the preceding passage a place 
among the Spiritual Aphorisms for the sake of the Comment : 
the following Remark having been the first marginal Note I 
had pencilled on Leighton's Pages, and thus, (remotely, at 
least ) , the occasion of the present Work. 

Leighton, I observed, throughout his inestimable Work, 
avoids all metaphysical views of Election, relatively to God, 
and confines himself to the Doctrine in its i elation to Man : 
and in that sense too, in which every Christian may judge who 
strives to be sincere with his own heart. The following may, 
I think, be taken as a safe and useful Rule in religious inqui- 
ries. Ideas, that derive their origin and substance from the 
Moral Being, and to the reception of which as true ohjectivi- 
ly {i. e. as corresponding to a reality out of the human mind) 
we are dete^i jnyied by a practical interest exclusively, may 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 109 

not, like theoretical or speculative Positions, be pressed on- 
ward into all their possible logical consequences. The Law 
of Conscience, and not the Canons of discursive Reasoning, 
must decide in such cases. At least, the latter has no validi- 
ty, which the single Veto of the former is not sufficient to nul- 
lify. The most pious conclusion is here the most legitimate. 
It is too seldom considered, though most worthy of consid- 
eration, how far even those Ideas or Theories of pure Spec- 
ulation, that bear the same name with the Objects of Religious 
Faith, are indeed the same. Out of the principles necessari- 
ly presumed in all discursive Thinking, and which being, in 
the first place, universal^ and secondly, antecedent to every 
particular exercise of the Understanding, are therefore refer- 
red to the Reason, the human Mind (wherever its powers are 
sufficiently developed, and its attention strongly directed to 
speculative or theoretical inquiries), forms certain Essences, 
to which for its own purposes it gives a sort of notional Sub- 
sistence. Hence they are called Entia rationalia : the con- 
version of which into Entia realia^ or real Objects, by aid of 
the Imagination, has in all times been the fruitful stock of 
empty Theories, and mischievous Superstitions, of surrepti- 
tious Premises and extravagant Conclusions. For as these 
substantiated Notions were in many instances expressed by 
the same terms, as the objects of religious Faith ; as in most 
instances they were applied, though deceptively, to the ex- 
planation of real experiences ; and lastly, from the gratifica- 
tions, which the pride and ambition of man received from the 
supposed extension of his Knowledge and Insight it was too 
easily forgotten or overlooked, that the stablest and most in- 
dispensable of these notional Beings were but the necessary 
forms of Thinking, taken abstractedly : and that hke the 
breadthless Lines, depthless Surfaces, and perfect Circles of 
Geometry, they subsist wholly and solely in and for the Mind, 
that contemplates them. Where the evidence of the Senses 
fails us, and beyond the precincts of sensible experience, there 
is no Reality attributable to any Notion, but what is given to 



110 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

it by Revelation, or the Law of Conscience, or the necessary 
interests of Morality. 

Take an instance : 

It is the office, and as it were, the instinct of Reason to 
bring a unity into all our conceptions and several knowledges. 
On this all system depends : and without this we could reflect 
connectedly neither on nature or our own minds. Now this 
is possible only on the assumption or hypothesis of a one as 
the ground and cause of the Universe, and which in all suc- 
cession and through all changes is the subject neither of Time 
or Change. The one must be contemplated as Eternal and 
Immutable. 

Well ! the Idea, which is the basis of Religion, commanded 
by the Conscience and required by Morality, contains the 
same truths, or at least Truths that can be expressed in no 
other terms ; but this idea presents itself to our mind with ad- 
ditional Attributes, and these too not formed by mere Abstrac- 
tion and Negation, with the Attributes of Holiness, Providence, 
Love, Justice, and Mercy. It comprehends, moreover, the 
independent (extra-mundane) existence and personality of 
the supreme one, as our Creator, Lord, and Judge. 

The hypothesis of a one Ground and Principle of the Uni- 
verse ( necessary as an hypothesis ; but having only a logical 
and conditional necessity) is thus raised into the idea of the 
living god, the supreme Object of our Faith, Love, Fear, 
and Adoration. Religion and Morality do indeed constrain us 
to declare him Eternal and Immutable. But if from the Eter- 
nity of the Supreme Being a Reasoner should] deduce the 
impossibility of a Creation ; or conclude with Aristotle, that 
the Creation was co-eternal; or, like the later Platonists, 
should turn Creation into Emanation^ and make the universe 
proceed from Deity, as the Sunbeams from the Solar Orb ; — 
or if from the divine Immutability he should infer, that all 
Prayer and Supplication must be vain and superstitious : then 
however evident and logically necessary such conclusions may 
appear, it is scarcely worth our while to examine, whether 
they are so or not. The Positions themselves must be false. 



APHORIS^tS ON SPIBITUAL RELIGION. Ill 

For were they true, the idea would lose the sole ground of its 
reality. It would be no longer the Idea intended by the Be- 
liever in his premise — in the Premise, with which alone Re- 
ligion and Morality are concerned. The very subject of the 
discussion would be changed. It would no longer be the God 
in whom we believe ; but a stoical fate, or the superessential 
ONE of Plotinus, to whom neither Intelligence, or Self-con- 
sciousness, or Life, or even Being dare be attributed : or last- 
ly, the World itself, the indivisible one and only substance 
(substantia una et unica) of Spinoza, of which all Phenome- 
na, all particular and individual Things, Lives, Minds, Thoughts 
and Actions are but modifications. 

Let the Believer never be alarmed by Objections wholly 
speculative, however plausible on speculative grounds such 
objections may appear, if he can but satisfy himself, that the 
Result is repugnant to the dictates of Conscience, and irre- 
concilable with the interests of Morality. For to baffle the 
Objector we have only to demand of him, by what right and 
under wjiat authority he converts a Thought into a Substance, 
or asserts the existence of a real somewhat corresponding to a 
Notion not derived from the experience of his Senses. It 
will be of no purpose for him to answer, that it is a legitimate 
Notion. The Notion may have its mould in the understand- 
ing ; but its realization must be the work of the fancy. 

A reflecting Reader will easily apply these remarks to the 
subject of Election, one of the stumbling stones in the ordi- 
nary conceptions of the Christian Faith, to which the Infidel 
points in scorn, and which far better men pass by in silent per- 
plexity. Yet surely, from mistaken conceptions of the Doc- 
trine. I suppose the person, with whom I am arguing, already 
so far a believer, as to have convinced himself, both that a 
state of enduring bliss is attainable under certain conditions ; 
and that these conditions consist in his compliance with the 
directions given and rules prescribed in the Christian Scrip- 
tures. These rules he likewise admits to be Such, that, by 
the very law and constitution of the human mind, a full and 
faithful compliance with them cannot but have consequences 



112 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

of some sort or other. But these consequences are moreover 
distinctly described, enumerated and promised in the same 
Scriptures, in which the conditions are recorded ; and though 
some of them may be apparent to God only, yet the greater 
number are of such a nature that they cannot exist unknown 
to the Individual, in and for whom they exist. As little possi- 
ble is it, that he should find these consequences in himself, and 
not find in them the sure marks and the safe pledges, that he 
is at the time in the right road to the Life promised under these 
conditions. Now I dare assert, that no such man, however 
fervent his charity, and however deep his humility, may be, 
can peruse the records of History with a reflecting spirit, or 
" look round the world" with an observant eye, and not find 
himself compelled to admit, that all men are not on the right 
Road. He cannot help judging, that even in Christian coun- 
tries Many, a fearful Many ! have not their faces turned to- 
ward it. 

This then is mere matter of fact. Now comes the ques- 
tion. Shall the Believer, who thus hopes on the appointed 
grounds of Hope, attribute this distinction exclusively to his 
own resolves and strivings ? or if not exclusively yet primari- 
ly and principally ? Shall he refer the first movements and 
preparations to his own Will and Understanding, and bottom 
his claim to the Promises on his own comparative excellence ? 
If not, if no man dare take this honour to himself, to whom 
shall he assign it, if not to that Being in whom the Promise 
originated and on whom its Fulfilment depends ? If he stop 
here, who shall blame him ? By what argument shall his rea- 
soning be invalidated, that might not be urged with equal 
force against any essential difference between Obedient and 
Disobedient, Christian and Worldling, that would not imply 
that both sorts alike are, in the sight of God, the sons of God 
by adoption ? If he stop here, who shall drive him from his 
position ? For thus far he is practically concerned — this the 
Conscience requires, this the highest interests of Morality de- 
mand. It is a question of Facts, of the Will and the Deed, 
to argue against which on the abstract notions and possibihties 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. lio 

of the speculative Reason is as unreasonable, as an attempt to 
decide a question of Colours by pure Geometry, or to unsettle 
the classes and specific characters of Natural History by the 
Doctrine of Fluxions. 

But if the self-examinant will abandon this position, and 
exchange the safe circle of Religion and practical Reason for 
the shifting Sand- wastes and Mirages of Speculative Theolo- 
gy ; if instead of seeking after the marks of Election in him- 
self he undertakes to determine the ground and origin, the 
possibility and mode of Election itself in relation to God ; — 
in this case, and whether he does it for the satisfaction of cu- 
riosity, or from the ambition of answering those, who would 
call God himself to account, why and by what right certain 
Souls were born in Africa instead of England ? or why ( see- 
ing that it is against all reason and goodness to choose a worse 
when being omnipotent he could have created a better) God 
did not create Beasts Men, and Men Angels ? or why God^ 
created any men but with pre-knowledge of their obedience, 
and why he left any occasion for Election ? — in this case, \ 
say, we can only regret, that the Inquirer had not been better 
instructed in the nature, the bounds, the true purposes and 
proper objects of his intellectual faculties, and that he had not 
previously asked himself, by what appropriate Sense, or Or- 
gan of Knowledge, he hoped to secure an insight into a Na- 
ture which was neither an Object of his Senses, nor a part of 
his Self-consciousness ! and so leave him to ward off shadowy 
Spears with the shadow of a Shield, and to retaliate the non- 
sense of Blasphemy with the Abracadabra of Presumption. 
He that will fly without wings must fly in his dreams ; and till 
he awakes, will not find out, that to fly in a dream is but to 
dream of flying. 

Thus then the Doctrine of Election is in itself a necessary 
inference from an undeniable fact — necessary at least for all 
who hold that the best of Men are what they are through the 
grace of God. In relation to the Believer it is a Hope^ which 
if it spring out of Christian Principles, be examined by the 
tests and nourished by the means prescribed in Scripture, will 

15 



114 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

become a lively^ an assured Hope, but which cannot in this 
life pass into knowledge^ much less certainty of Fore-knowl- 
edge. The contrary belief does indeed make the article of 
Election both tool and parcel of a mad and mischievous fanati- 
cism. But with what force and clearness does not the Apos- 
tle confute, disclaim, and prohibit the pretence, treating it as 
a downwright contradiction in terms ! See Rom. viii. 24. 

But though I hold the doctrine handled as Leighton han- 
dles it ( that is 'practically, morally, Awman/i/^ rational, safe, 
and of essential importance, I see many [48] reasons resulting 
from the peculiar circumstances, under which St. Paul prea- 
ched and wrote, why a discreet Minister of the Gospel should 
avoid the frequent use of the term^ and express the meaning 
in other words perfectly equivalent and equally scriptural : lest 
in saying truth he might convey error^ 
^ Had my purpose been confined to one particular Tenet, an 
apology might be required for so long a Comment. But the 
Reader will, I trust, have already perceived, that my object 
has been to establish a general Rule of interpretation and vin- 
dication applicable to all doctrinal Tenets, and especially to 
the ( so called ) Mysteries of the Christian Faith : to provide 
a Safety-lamp for religious inquirers. Now this I find in the 
principle, that all revealed Truths are to be judged of by us, 
as far as they are possible subjects of human Conception, or 
grounds of Practice, or in some way connected with our mo- 
ral and spiritual Interests. In order to have a reason /or for- 
ming a judgment on any given article, we must be sure that 
we possess a Reason, by and according to which a judgment 
may be formed. Now in respect of all Truths, to which a 
real independent existence is assigned, and which yet are not 
contained in, or to be imagined under, any form of Space or 
Time, it is strictly demonstrable, that the human Reason, con- 
sidered abstractly as the source of positive Science and theo- 
retical Insight, is not such a Reason. At the utmost, it has 
only a negative voice. In other words, nothing can be allow- 
ed as true for the human Mind, which directly contradicts this 
Reason. But even here, before we admit the existence of 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. H^ 

any such contradiction, we must be careful to ascertain, that 
there is no equivocation in play, that two different subjects 
are not confounded under one and the same word. A striking 
instance of this has been adduced in the difference between 
the notional One of the Ontologists, and the idea of the Liv- 
ing God. 

But if not the abstractor speculative Reason, and yet area- 
son there must be in order to a rational Belief— then it must 
be the Practical Reason of Man, comprehending the Will, the 
Conscience, the Moral Being with its inseparable Interests 
and Affections—that Reason, namely, which is the Organ of 
Wisdom, and (as far as Man is concerned) the Source of liv- 
ing and actual Truths. 

From these premises we may further deduce, that every 
doctrine is to be interpreted in reference to those, to whom 
it has been revealed, or who have or have had the means of 
knowing or hearing the same. For instance : the Doctrine 
that there is no name under Heaven, by which a man can be 
saved, but the name of Jesus. If the word here rendered 
Name, may be understood (as it well may, and as in other 
texts it must be) as meaning the Power, or originating Cause, 
I see no objection on the part of the Practical Reason to our 
belief of the declaration in its whole extent. It is true uni- 
versally or not true at all. If there be any redemptive pow- 
er not contained in the Power of Jesus, then Jesus is not the 
Redeemer: not the redeemer of the World, not the Jesus (i. 
e. Saviour) of Mankind. But if with Tertullian and Augus- 
tin we make the Text assert the condemnation and misery of 
all who are not Christians by Baptism and explicit Belief in 
the Revelation of the New Covenant— then I say, the doc- 
trine is true to all intents and purposes. It is true, in every 
respect, in which any practical, moral, or spiritual Interest or 
End can be connected with its truth. It is true in respect to 
every man who has had, or who might have had, the Gospel 
preached to him. It is true and obligatory for every Chris- 
tian community and for every individual Believer, wherever 
the opportunity is afforded of spreading the Light of the Gos- 



116 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



pel and making known the name of the only Saviour and Re- 
deemer. For even though the uninformed Heathens should 
not perish, the guilt of their Perishing will attach to those 
who not only had no certainty of their safety, but who were 
commanded to act on the supposition of the contrary. But if 
on the other hand, a theological Dogmatist should attempt to 
persuade me, that this Text was intended to give us an histor- 
ical knowledge of God's future Actions and Dealings — and 
for the gratification of our curiosity to inform us, that Socrates 
and Phocion, together with all the Savages in the untravelled 
Woods and Wilds of Africa and America, will be sent to keep 
company with the Devil and his Angels in everlasting Tor- 
ments — I should remind him, that the purpose of Scripture 
was to teach us our duty, not to enable us to sit in Judgment 
on the souls of our fellow creatures. 

One other instance will, I trust, prevent all misconception 
of my meaning. I am clearly convinced, that the scriptural 
and only true [49] Idea of God will, in its developement, be 
found to involve the Idea of the Triunity. But I am likewise 
convinced, that previous to the promulgation of the Gospel 
the Doctrine had no claim on the Faith of Mankind : though 
it might have been a legitimate contemplation for a specula- 
tive philosopher, a Theorem in Metaphysics vahd in the 
Schools. 

I form a certain notion in my mind, and say : this is what / 
understand by the term, God. From books and conversation 
I find, that the Learned generally connect the same notion 
with the same word. I then apply the Rules, laid down by 
the Masters of Logic, for the involution and evolution of terms 
and prove ( to as many as agree with me in my premises ) that 
the Notion, God, involves the Notion, Trinity. I now pass 
out of the Schools, and enter into discourse with some friend 
or neighbour, unversed in the formal sciences, unused to the 
processes of Abstraction, neither Logician or Metaphysician ; 
but sensible and singleminded, " an Israelite indeed," trust- 
ing in " the Lord God of his Fathers, even the God of Abra- 
ham, of Isaac, and of Jacob." If 1 speak of God to /lim, what 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 117 

will he understand me to be speaking of? What does he 
nean, and suppose me to mean, by the word ? An Accident 
pr Product of the reasoning faculty, or an Abstraction which 
the human Mind makes by reflecting on its own thoughts and 
forms of thinking ? No. By God he understands me to mean 
an existing and self-subsisting reality [50], a real and personal 
Being — even the Person, the i am, who sent Moses to his 
Forefathers in Egypt. Of the actual existence of this divine 
Person he has the same historical assurance as of theirs ; con- 
firmed indeed by the Book of Nature, as soon and as far as 
that stronger and better Light has taught him to read and con- 
strue it — confirmed by it, I say, but not derived from it. Now 
by what right can I require this Man ( and of such men the 
great majority of serious Believers consisted, previous to the 
Light of the Gospel) to receive a Notion of mine, wholly al- 
ien from his habits of thinking, because it may be logicallyde- 
duced from another Notion, with which he was almost as little 
acquainted, and not at all concerned ? Grant for a moment, 
that the latter (i. e. the Notion, with which I first set out) as 
soon as it is combined with the assurance of a corresponding 
Reality becomes identical with the true and effective Idea of 
God ! Grant, that in thus realizing the Notion I am warran- 
ted by Revelation, the Law of Conscience, and the interests 
and necessities of my Moral Being ! Yet by what authority, 
by what inducement, am I entitled to attach the same reality 
to a second Notion, a Notion drawn from a Notion ? It is evi- 
dent, that if I have the same Right, it must be on the same 
grounds. Revelation must have assured it, my conscience re- 
quired it — or in some way or other I must have an interest in 
this belief. It must concern me, as a moral and responsible 
Being. Now these grounds were first given in the Redemp- 
tion of Mankind by Christ, the Saviour and Mediator : and by 
the utter incompatibility of these ofiices with a mere Crea- 
ture. On the doctrine of Redemption depends the Faith, the 
Duty, of believing in the Divinity of our Lord. And this 
again is the strongest Ground for the reality of that Idea, in 
which alone this Divinity can be received without breach of 



118 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

the faith in the unity of the Godhead. But such is the Idea 
of the Trinity. Strong as the motives are that induce me to 
defer the full discussion of this great Article of the Christian 
Creed, I cannot withstand the request of several Divines, 
whose situation and extensive services entitle them to the ut- 
most deference, that I should so far deviate from my first in- 
tention as at least to indicate the point on which I stand, and 
to prevent the misconception of my purpose : as if I held the 
doctrine of the Trinity for a Truth w^hich Men could be called 
on to believe by mere force of Reasoning, independently of 
any positive Revelation. In short, it had been reported in cer- 
tain circles, that I considered this doctrine as a demonstrable 
part of the Religion of Nature. Now though it might be suf- 
ficient to say, that I regard the very phrase " Revealed Reli- 
gion" as a pleonasm, inasmuch as a religion not revealed is, 
in my judgment, no religion at all ; I have no objection to an- 
nounce more particularly and distinctly what I do and what I 
do not maintain on this point : provided that in the following 
paragraph, with this view inserted, the reader will look for 
nothing more than a plain statement of my opinions. The 
grounds on which they rest, and the arguments by which they 
are to be vindicated, are for another place. 

I hold then, it is true, that all the (so called) Demonstra- 
tions of a God either prove too little, as that from the Order 
and apparent Purpose in Nature ; or too much, viz. that the 
World is itself God ; or they clandestinely involve the con- 
clusion in the Premises, passing off the mere analysis or expli- 
cation of an Assertion for the Proof of it — a species of logical 
legerdemain not unlike that of the Jugglers at a Fair, who 
putting into their mouths what seems to be a walnut, draw out 
a score yards of Ribbon. On this sophism rest the pretended 
" Demonstrations of a God" grounded on the Postulate of a 
First Cause. And lastly in all these Demonstrations the au- 
thors presuppose the Idea or Conception of a God without be- 
ing able to authenticate it, i. e. to give an account whence 
they obtained it. For it is clear, that the proof first mention- 
ed and the most natural and convincing of all ( the Cosmolo- 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



119 



gical I mean or that from the Order in Nature) presupposes 
the Ontological — ^i. e. the proof of a God from the necessity 
and necessary Objectivity of the Idea. If the latter can as- 
sure us of a God as an existing Reality, the former will go far 
to prove his Power, Wisdom and Benevolence. All this I 
hold. But I also hold, that this Truth, the hardest to demon- 
strate, is the one which of all others least needs to be demon- 
strated ; that though there may be no conclusive demonstra- 
tions of a good, wise, living and personal God, there are so 
many convincing reasons for it, within and without — a grain of 
sand sufficing, and a whole universe at hand to echo the deci- 
gion ! — that for every mind not devoid of all reason, and despe- 
rately conscience-proof, the Truth which it is the least possi- 
ble to prove, it is little less than impossible not to believe ! 
only indeed just so much short of impossible, as to leave some 
room for the will and the moral election, and thereby to keep 
it a truth of Religion, and the possible subject of a Command- 
ment[61]. 

On this account I do not demand of a Deist^ that he should 
adopt the doctrine of the Trinity. For he might very well 
be justified in replying, that he rejected the doctrine, not be- 
cause it could not be demonstrated, nor yet on the score of 
any incomprehensibiUties and seeming contradictions that 
might be objected to it, as knowing that these might be, and 
in fact had been, urged with equal force against a personal 
God under any form capable of Love and Veneration ; but 
because he had not the same theoretical necessity, the same 
interests and instincts of Reason for the one hypothesis as for the 
other. It is not enough, the Deist might justly say, that there is 
no cogent reason why I should not believe the Trinity : you 
must show me some cogent reason why I should. 

But the case is quite different with a Christian, who accepts 
the Scriptures as the Word of God, yet refuses his assent to 
the plainest declarations of these Scriptures, and explains 
away the most express texts into metaphor and hyperbole, 
because the literal and obvious interpretation is ( according to 
his notions) absurd and contrary to reason. He is bound to 



120 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

show, that it is so in any sense, not equally applicahle to the 
texts asserting the Being, Infinity, and Personality of God the 
Father, the Eternal and Omnipresent one, who created the 
Heaven and the Earth. And the more is he bound to do this, 
and the greater is my right to demand it of him, because the 
doctrine of Redemption from Sin supplies the Christian with 
motives and reasons for the divinity of the Redeemer far more 
concerning and coercive subjectively, i. e. in the economy of 
his own Soul, than are all the inducements that can influence 
the Deist objectively, i, e. in tl>e interpretation of Nature. 

Do I then utterly exclude the speculative Reason from The- 
ology ? No [ It is its office and rightful privilege to deter- 
mine on the negative truth of whatever we are required to be- 
lieve. The Doctrine must not contradict any universal prin- 
ciple : for this would be a Doctrine^ that contradicted itself. 
Or Philosophy ? No. It may be and has been the servant 
and pioneer of Faith by convincing the mind, that a doctrine 
is cogitable, that the soul can present the Idea to itself: and 
that if we determine to contemplate, or think of, the subject 
at all, so and in no other form can this be effected. So far 
are both Logic and Philosophy to be received and trusted. 
But the duty, and in some cases and for some persons even 
the right, of thinking on subjects beyond the bounds of sen- 
sible experience ; the grounds of the real truth ; the Life, the 
Substance, the Hope, the Love, in one word, the Faith; these 
are Derivatives from the practical, moral, and spiritual Nature 
and Being of Man. 

APHORISM III. 

That Religion is designed to improve the nature and facul- 
ties of Man, in oider to the right governing of our actions, to 
the securing the peace and progress, external and internal, of 
Individuals and of Communities, and lastly, to the renderings 
us capable of a more perfect state, entitled the kingdom of 
God, to which the present Life is probationary — this is a truth 
which all who have truth only in view, will receive on its own 
evidence. If such then be the main end of Religion altogeth- 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 121 

er (the improvement namely of our nature and faculties), it 
is plain, that every part of Religion is to be judged by its re- 
lation to this main end. And since the Christian Scheme is 
Religion in its most perfect and effective Form, a revealed 
Religion, and therefore, in a special sense proceeding from 
that being who made us and knows what we are, of course 
therefore adapted to the needs and capabilities of Human Na- 
ture ; nothing can be a part of this holy faith that is not duly 
proportioned to this end. Extracted with slight alterations 
from BurneVs Preface to Vol. ii. of the Hist, of the Refor- 
mation, 

COMMENT. 

This Aphorism should be borne in mind, whenever a theo- 
logical Resolve is proposed to us as an article of Faith. Take, 
for instance, the Determinations passed at the Synod of Dort, 
concerning the Absolute Decrees of God in connexion with 
his Omniscience and Fore-knowledge. Or take the Decision 
in the Council of Trent on the Difference between the two 
kinds of Transubstantiation, the one in which both the Sub- 
stance and the Accidents are changed, the same matter re- 
maining — as in the conversion of Water to Wine at Cana : 
the other, in which the Matter and Substance are changed, 
the Accidents remaining unaltered, as in the Eucharist — this 
latter being Transubstantiation par eminence ! Or rather take 
the still more tremendous Dogma, that it is indispensable to 
a saving Faith carefully to distinguish the one kind from the 
other, and to believe both, and to believe the necessity of be- 
lieving both in order to Salvation ! For each or either of 
these extra-scriptural Articles of Faith the preceding Apho- 
rism supplies a safe criterion. Will the belief tend to the im- 
provement of any of my moral or intellectual faculties ? But 
before I can be convinced that a Faculty will be improved^ I 
must be assured that it exists. On all these dark sayings, 
therefore, of Dort or Trent, it is quite sufficient to ask, by 
what faculty^ organ, or inlet of knowledge we are to assure 
ourselves, that the words mean any thing, or correspond to 

16 



IZZ AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

any object out of our own mind or even in it : unless indeed 
the mere craving and striving to think on, after all the mate- 
rials for thinking have been exhausted, can be called an object. 
When a number of trust-worthy Persons assure me, that a 
portion of fluid which they saw lo be Water, by some change 
in the fluid itself, or in their Senses, suddenly acquired the 
Colour, Taste, Smell, and exhilarating property of Wine, I 
perfectly understand what they tell me, and likew^ise by what 
faculties they might have come to the knowledge of the Fact. 
But if any one of the number not satisfied with my acquies- 
cence in the Fact, should insist on my believing, that the Mat- 
ter remained the same, the Substance and the Accidents hav- 
ing been removed in order to make way for a different Sub- 
stance with different Accidents, I must entreat his permission 
to wait till I can discover in myself any faculty, by which 
there can be presented to me a matter distinguishable from 
Accidents, and a Substance that is different from both. It is 
true, I have a faculty of articulation ; but I do not see that it 
can be improved by my using it for the formation of words 
without meaning, or at best, for the utterance of Thoughts, 
that mean only the act of so thinking, or of trying so to think. 
But the end of Religion is the improvement of our Nature 
and Faculties. Ergo, &c, Q, E. D. I sum up the whole in 
one great practical Maxim. The Object of religious Contem- 
plation, and of a truly spiritual Faith, is the ways of God to 
Man. Of the Workings of the Godhead, God himself has 
told us. My Ways are not as your ways, nor my Thoughts as 
your Thoughts. 

APHORISM IV. 

THE CHARACTERISTIC DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE DISCIPLINE 
OF THE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS AND THE DISPENSATION OF 
THE GOSPEL. 

By undeceiving, enlarging, and informing the Intellect, Phi- 
losophy sought to purify, and to elevate the Moral Character. 
Of course, those alone could receive the latter and incompara- 
bly greater Benefit, who by natural capacity and favourable 



APHORl-SMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 123 

contingencies of Fortune were fit Recipients of the former. 
Plow small the number, we scarcely need the evidence of His- 
tory to assure us. Across the Night of Paganism, Philosophy 
flitted on, like the Lanthorn-fly of the Tropics, a Light to itself, 
and an Ornament, but alas! no more than an ornament, of the 
surrounding Darkness. 

Christianity reversed the order. By means accessible to 
all, by inducements operative on all, and by convictions, the 
grounds and materials of which all men might find in them- 
selves her first step was to cleanse the Heart. But the bene- 
fit did not stop here. In preventing the rank vapours that 
steam up from the corrupt Heart Christianity restores the In- 
tellect likewise to its natural clearness. By relieving the mind 
from the distractions and importunities of the unruly pas- 
sions, she improves the quality of the Understanding : while 
at the same time she presents for its contemplations Ob- 
jects so great and so bright as cannot but enlarge the Organ, 
by which they are contemplated. The Fears, the Hopes, the 
Remembrances, the Anticipations, the inward and outward Ex- 
perience, the Belief and the Faith, of a Christian form of them- 
selves a Philosophy and a sum of Knowledge, which a Life 
spent in the Grove of Academus, or the "painted Porch," 
could not have attained or collected. The result is contained 
in the fact of a wide and still widening Christendom. 

Yet I dare not say, that the effects have been proportionate 
to the divine wisdom of the Scheme. Too soon did the Doc- 
tors of the Church forget that the Hearty the Moral Nature, was 
the Beginning and the End; and that Truth, Knowledge and 
Insight were comprehended in its expansion. This was the 
true and first apostasy — when in Council and Synod the divine 
Humanities of the Gospel gave way to speculative Systems, 
and Religion became a Science of Shadows under the name 
of Theology, or at best a bare Skeleton of Truth, without 
life or interest, alike inaccessible and unintelligible to the ma- 
jority of Christians. For these therefore there remained only 
rites and ceremonies and spectacles, shows and semblances. 
Thus among the learned the substance of things hoped for 
( Heb. xi. 1 . ) passed oft* into Notions ; and for the Unlearned 



124 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

the surfaces of Things became [52] Substance. The Chris- 
tian world was for centuries divided into the Many, that did 
not think at all, and the Few who did nothing but think— both 
alike unreflecting, the one from defect of the Act, the other 
from the absence of an Object. 

APHORISM V. 

There is small chance of Truth at the goal where there is 
not child-like Humility at the Starting-post. 

COMMENT. 

Humility is the safest Ground of Docility : and Docility the 
surest Promise of Docibility. Where there is no working of 
Self-love in the heart that secures a leaning beforehand ; where 
the great Magnet of the Planet is not overwhelmed or obscur- 
ed by partial masses of Iron in close neighbourhood to the 
Compass of the Judgment, though hidden or unnoticed ; there 
will this great Desideratum be found of a child-like Humility. 
Do I then say, that I am to be influenced by no Interest ? Far 
from it ! There is an Interest of Truth : or how could there 
be a Love of Truth ? And that a love of Truth for its own 
sake, and merely as Truth, is possible, my Soul bears witness 
to itself in its inmost recesses. But there are other Inter- 
ests — those of Goodness, of Beauty, of Utility. It would be 
a sorry proof of the Humility I am extolling, were I to ask for 
Angels' wings to overfly my own Human Nature. I exclude 
none of these. It is enough if the " lene clinameUj^^ the gen- 
tle Bias, be given by no interest that concerns myself other 
than as I am a Man, and included in the great family of Man- 
kind ; but which does therefore especially concern me, be- 
cause being a common Interest of all men it must needs con- 
cern the very essentials of my Being, and because these ea- 
sentials, as existing in me, are especially intrusted to my par- 
ticular charge. 

Widely different from this social and truth attracted Bias, 
different both in its nature and its effects, is the Interest con- 
nected with the desire of distinguishing yourself from other 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 125 

men, in order to be distinguished by them. Hoc revera est 
inter te et veritatem. This Interest does indeed stand be- 
tween thee and truth. I might add between thee and thy own 
soul. It is scarcely more at variance with the love of truth 
than it is unfriendly to the attainment that deserves that name. 
By your own act you have appointed the Many as your Judg- 
es and Appraisers : for the anxiety to be admired is a loveless 
passion, ever strongest with regard to those by whom we are 
least known and least cared for, loud on the Hustings, gay 
in the Ball-room, mute and sullen at the family Fireside. 
What you have acquired by patient thought and cautious dis- 
crimination, demands a portion of the same effort in those who 
are to receive it from you. But Applause and Preference are 
things of Barter ; and if you trade in them. Experience will 
soon teach you that there are easier and less unsuitable w^ays 
to win golden judgments than by at once taxing the patience 
and humiliating the self-opinion of your judges. To obtain 
your end, your words must be as indefinite as their Thoughts : 
and how vague and general these are even on objects of sense, 
the few who at a mature age have seriously set about the dis- 
cipline of their faculties, and have honestly taken stock, best 
know by recollection of their own state. To be admired you 
must make your auditors believe at least that they understand 
what you say ; which, be assured, they never will, if it be 
worth understanding, or if you understand your own soul. 
But while your prevailing motive is to be compared and ap- 
preciated, is it credible, is it possible, that you should in ear- 
nest seek for a knowledge which is and must remain a hidden 
Light, a secret Treasure ? Have you children, or have you 
lived among children, and do you not know, that in all things, 
in food, in medicine, in all their doings and abstainings they 
must believe in order to acquire a reason for their belief? But 
so is it with religious truths for all men. These we must all 
learn as children. The ground of the prevailing error on this 
point is the ignorance, that in spiritual concernments to be- 
lieve and to understand are not diverse things, but the same 
thing in different periods of its gro^^lh. Belief is the seed, 



125 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

received into the will, of which the Understanding or Knowl- 
edge is the Flower, and the thing believed is the fruit. Un- 
less ye believe (saith the Prophet) ye cannot understand : and 
unless ye be humble as children, ye not only will not, but ye 
cannot believe. Of such therefore is the Kingdom of Hea- 
ven. Yea, blessed is the calamity that makes us humble : 
though so repugnant thereto is our nature, in our present state 
that after a while, it is to be feared, a second and sharper ca- 
lamity would be wanted to cure us of. our pride in having be- 
come so humble. 

Lastly, there are among us, though fewer and less in fash- 
ion than among our ancestors. Persons who, like Shaftesbury, 
do not belong to " the herd of Epicurus," yet prefer a philo- 
sophic Paganism to the morality of the Gospel. Now it would 
conduce, methinks, to the child-like Humility, we have been 
discoursing of, if the use of the term. Virtue, in that high 
comprehensive, and notional sense in which it was used by 
the ancient Stoics, were abandoned, as a relic of Paganism, to 
these modern Pagans : and if Christians restoring the word to 
its original import, viz. Manhood or Mmliness, used it exclu- 
sively to express the quality of Fortitude ; Strength of Char- 
acter in relation to the resistance opposed by Nature and the 
irrational Passions to the Dictates of Reason ; Energy of will 
in preserving the Line of Rectitude tense and firm against the 
warping forces and treacheries of Temptation. Surely, it 
were far less unseemly to value ourselves on this moral 
Strength than on Strength of Body, or even Strength of In- 
tellect. But we will rather value it for ourselves : and bear- 
ing in mind the old adage, Quis custodiet ipsum Custodem ? 
we will value it the more, yea, then only will we allow it true 
spiritual Worthy when we possess it as a gift of Grace, a boon 
of Mercy undeserved, a fulfilment of a free Promise ( 1 Cor- 
inth. X. 13.) What more is meant in this last paragraph, let 
the venerable Hooker say for me in the following 

APHORISM VI. 

What is Virtue but a Medicine, and Vice but a Wound ? 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 127 

Yea, we have so often deeply wounded ourselves with Medi- 
cine, that God hath been fain to make wounds medicinable ; 
to cure by Vice where Virtue hath stricken ; to suffer the 
just man to fall, that being raised he may be taught what pow- 
er it was which upheld him standing. I am not afraid to af- 
firm it boldly with St. Augustine, that Men puffed up through 
a proud Opinion of their own Sanctity and Holiness receive a 
benefit at the hands of God, and are assisted with his Grace 
when with his Grace they are not assisted, but permitted ( and 
that grievously) to transgress. Whereby, as they were through 
over-great Liking of themselves supplanted (tripped up)^ so 
the disUke of that which did supplant them may establish 
them afterwards the surer. Ask the very Soul of Peter, 
and it shall undoubtedly itself make you this answer : My 
eager protestations made in the glory of my spiritual strength, 
I am ashamed of. But my shame and the Tears, with which 
my Presumption and my Weakness were bewailed, recur in 
the songs of my Thanksgiving. My Strength had been my 
Ruin, my Fall hath proved my Stay. Sermon on the Nature 
of Pride, Hooker's Works, p. 521. 

APHORISM VII. 

The Being and Providence of One Living God, Holy, Gra- 
cious, Merciful, the Creator and Preserver of all Things, and 
a Father of the Righteous ; the Moral Law in i its utmost 
height, breadth and purity ; a State of Retribution after death ; 
the 2 Resurrection of the Dead ; and a Day of Judgment — all 
these were known and received by the Jewish People, as 
establishiid articles of the National Faith, at or before the Pro- 
claiming of Christ by the Baptist. They are the ground-work 
of Christianity, and essentials in the Christian Faith, but not 
its characteristic and peculiar Doctrines : except indeed as they 
are confirmed, enlivened, realized and brought home to the 
ivhole Being of Man, Head, Heart, and Spirit, by the truths 
and influences of the Gospel. 

Peculiar to Christianity are : 

I. The belief that a Means of Salvation has been effected 



128 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

and provided for the Human Race by the incarnation of the 
Son of God in the person of Jesus Christ ; and that his Life 
on earth, his Sufferings, Death, and Resurrection are not only 
proofs and manifestations, but likewise essential and effective 
parts of the great Redemptive Act, whereby also the Obstacle 
from the corruption of our Nature is rendered no longer insur- 
mountable. 

II. The belief in the possible appropriation of this benefit 
by Repentance and Faith, including the Aids that render an 
effective Faith and Repentance themselves possible. 

III. The belief in the reception (by as many as "shall be 
Heirs of Salvation" ) of a living and spiritual Principle, a seed 
of Life capable of surviving this natural life, and of existing 
in a divine and immortal State. 

IV. The belief in the awakening of the Spirit [53] in them 
that truly believe, and in the communion of the Spirit, thus 
awakened, with the Holy Spirit. 

y. The belief in the accompanying and consequent gifts, 
graces, comforts, and privileges of the Spirit, which acting 
primarily on the heart and will cannot but manifest themselves 
in suitable works of Love and Obedience, i. e. in right acts 
with right affections, from right principles. 

Further, as Christians, we are taught, that these Works are 
the appointed signs and evidences of our Faith ; and that un- 
der limitation of the power, the means, and the opportu- 
nities afforded us individually, they are the rule and measure, 
by which we are bound and enabled to judge, of what spirit 
we are : and all these together with the doctrine of the Fa- 
thers reproclaimed in the everlasting Gospel, we receive in 
the full assurance, that God beholds and will finally judge us 
with a merciful consideration of our infirmities, a gracious ac- 
ceptance of our sincere though imperfect strivings, a forgive- 
ness of our defects through the mediation, and a completion of 
our deficiencies by the perfect righteousness, of the Man 
Christ Jesus, even the Word that was in the beginning with 
God, and who, being God, became Man for the redemption of 
Mankind. 



APHOIilSMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 129 



COMMENT. 



I earnestlj entreat the Reader to pause awhile, and to join 
with me in reflecting on the preceding Aphorism. It has been 
my aim throughout this work to enforce two points : 1. That 
Morality arising out of the Reason and Conscience of Men, 
and Prudence, which in like manner flows out of the Under- 
standing and the natural Wants and Desires of the Individual, 
are two distinct things ; 2. That Morality with prudence as 
its instrument has, considered abstractedly, not only a value 
but a worth in itself. Now the question is ( and it is a ques- 
tion which every man must answer for himself) " From what 
you know of yourself; of your own heart and Strength ; and 
from what History and personal Experience have led you to 
conclude of mankind generally ; dare you trust to it ? Dare 
you trust to it ? To it, and to it alone ? If so, well ! It is 
at your own risk. I judge you not. Before Him, who can- 
not be mocked, you stand or fall. But if not, if you have had 
too good reason to know, that your heart is deceitful and your 
strength weakness : if you ar6 disposed to exclaim with Paul — 
the Law indeed is holy, just, good, spiritual ; but I am car- 
nal, sold under sin : for that which I do, I allow not ; and what 
I would, that do I not ? — in this case, there is a voice that 
says. Come unto me : and I will give you rest. This is the 
Voice of Christ : and the Conditions, under which the prom- 
ise was given by him, are that you believe in him, and believe 
his words. And he has further assured you, that if you do 
so, you will obey. You are, in short, to embrace the Chris- 
tian Faith as your Religion — those truths which St. Paul be- 
lieved after his conversion, and not those only which he be- 
lieved no less undoubtingly while he was persecuting Christ, 
and an enemy of the Christian Religion. With what consis- 
tency could I off*er you this volume as Aids to Reflection if I 
did not call on you to ascertain in the first instance what these 
truths are ? But these I could not lay before you without first 
enumerating certain other points of belief, which though truths, 
indispensable truths, and truths comprehended or rather pre- 

17 



130 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

supposed in the Christian Scheme, are yet not these Truths. 
John i. 17. 

While doing this> I was aware that the Positions, in the first 
paragraph of the preceding Aphorism, to which the numerical 
marks are affixed, will startle some of my Readers. Let the 
following sentences serve for the notes corresponding to the 
marks , 

I Be you holy : even as God is holy. — What more does he 
require of thee, O man ! than to do justice, love mercy, and 
walk humbly with the Lord thy God ? To these summary 
passages from Moses and the Prophets ( the first exhibiting the 
closed, the second the expanded, Hand of the Moral Law), I 
might add the Authorities, of Grotius and other more orthodox 
and not less learned Divines, for the opinion, that the Lord's 
Prayer was a selection^ and the famous Passage [The Hour is 
now coming, John v. 28, 29.] a citation by our Lord from the 
Liturgy of the Jewish Church. But it will be sufficient to re- 
mind the reader that the apparent difference between the prom- 
inent moral truths of the Old and those of the New Testament 
results from the latter having been written in Greek ; while 
the conversations recorded by the Evangelists took place in 
Hebrew or Syro-chaldaic. Hence it happened that where 
our Lord cited the original text, his Biographers substituted 
the Septuagint Version, while our English Version is in both 
instances immediate and literal — in the Old Testament from 
the Hebrew Original, in the New Testament from the freer 
Greek Translation. The text, " I give you a new command- 
ment," has no connexion with the present subject. 

2There is a current mistake on tliis point likewise, though 
this article of the Jewish Belief is not only asserted by St. 
Paul, but is elsewhere spoken of as common to the Twelve 
Tribes. The mistal?je consists in supposing the Pharisees to 
have been a distinct Sect, and in strangely over-rating the num- 
ber of the Sadducees. The former were distinguished not by 
holding, as matters of religious belief, articles different from 
the Jewish Church at large ; but by their pretences to a more 
rigid orthodoxy, a more scrupulous performance. They were, 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 131 

in short (if I may dare use a phrase which I dislike as profane 
and denounee as uncharitable), the Evangelicals and strict 
Professors of the Day. The latter, the Sadducees, whose 
opinions much more nearly resembled those of the Stoics than 
the Epicureans (a remark that will appear paradoxical to those 
only who have abstracted their notions of the Stoic Philoso- 
phy from Epictetus, Mark Antonine, and certain brilliant in- 
consistencies of Seneca), were a handful of rich men, roman- 
ized Jews, not more numerous than Infidels among us, and held 
by the^ People at large in at least equal Abhorrence. Their 
great argument was : that the Belief of a future State of re- 
wards and punishments injured or destroyed the purity of the 
Moral Law for the more enlightened Classes, and weakened 
the influence of the Laws of the Land for the People, the vul- 
gar Multitude. 



I will now suppose the Reader to have thoughtfully re-pe- 
rused the Paragraph containing the Tenets peculiar to Chris- 
tianity, and^if he have his religious principles yet to form, 1 
should expect to overheai' a troubled Murmur : How can I 
comprehend this ? How is this to be proved ? To the first 
question I should answer : Christianity is not a Theory, or a 
Speculation ; but a Life, Not a Philosophy of Life, but a 
Life and a living process. To the second : Try it. It has 
been eighteen hundred Years in existence : and has one Indi- 
vidual left a record, like the following ? [I tried it; and it 
did not answer. I made the experiment faithfully according to 
the directions ; and the result has been, a conviction of my own 
credulity.] Have you, in your own experience, met with any 
one in whose words you could place full confidence, and who 
has seriously aiSirmed, [I have given Christianity a fair trial. 
I was aware, that its promises were made only conditionally. 
But my heart bears me witness, that I have to the utmost of 
my power complied with these conditions. Both outwardly 



132 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

and in the discipline of ray inward acts and affections, I have 
performed the duties which it enjoins, and I have used the 
means, which it prescribes. Yet my Assurance of its truth 
has received no increase. Its promises have not been fulfil- 
led : and I repent me of my delusion !] If neither your own 
experience nor the History of almost two thousand years has 
presented a single testimony to this purport ; and if you have 
read and heard of many who have lived and died bearing wit- 
ness to the contrary : and if you have yourself met with some 
onCy in whom on any other point you would place unqualified 
trust, who has on his own experience made report to you, that 
" he is faithful who promised, and what he promised he has 
proved himself able to perform :" is it bigotry, if I fear that 
the Unbelief, which prejudges and prevents the experiment, 
has its source elsewhere than in the uncorrupted judgment; 
that not the strong free Mind, but the enslaved Will, is the true 
original Infidel in this instance ? It would not be the first 
time, that a treacherous Bosom-Sin had Suborned the Under- 
standings of men to bear false witness against its avowed ene- 
my, the right though unreceived Owner of the House, who 
had long warned it out^ and waited only for its ejection to en- 
ter and take possession of the same. 

I have elsewhere in the present Work, though more at large 
in the "Elements of Discourse" which, God permitting, will 
follow it, explained the difference between the Understanding 
and the Reason, by Reason meaning exclusively the specula- 
tive or scientific Power so called, the Nous or Mens of the 
Ancients. And wider still is the distinction between the Un- 
derstanding and the Spiritual Mind. But no Gift of God does 
or can contradict any other Gift, except by misuse or misdirec- 
tion. Most readily therefore do I admit, that theie can be no 
contrariety between Revelation and the Understanding; un- 
less you call the fact, that the Skin, though sensible of the 
warmth of the Sun, can convey no notion of its figure, or its 
joyous light, or of the colors, it impresses on the clouds, a con- 
trariety between the Skin and the Eye ; or infer that the cu- 
taneous and the optic nerves contradict each other. 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 133 

But we have grounds to believe, that there are yet other 
Rays or Effluences from the Sun, which neither Feeling nor 
Sight can apprehend, but which are to be inferred from the ef- 
fects. And were it even so with regard to the Spiritual Sun, 
how would this contradict the Understanding or the Reason ? 
It is a sufficient proof of the contrary, that the Mysteries in 
question are not in the direction of the Understanding or the 
(speculative) Reason. They do not move on the same line 
or plane with them, and therefore cannot contradict them. But 
besides this, in the Mystery that most immediately concerns 
the Believer, that of the birth into a new and spiritual life, 
the common sense and experience of mankind come in aid of 
their faith. The analogous facts which we know to be true, 
not only facilitate the apprehension of the facts promised to 
us, and expressed by the same words in conjunction with a 
distinctive epithet ; but being confessedly not less incompre- 
hensible, the certain knowledge of the one disposes us to the 
belief of the other. It removes at least all objections to the 
truth of the doctrine derived from the mysteriousness of its 
subject. The Life we seek after, is a mystery ; but so both 
in itself and in its origin is the Life we have. In order to meet 
this question, however, with minds duly prepared, there are 
two preliminary enquiries to be decided ; the first respecting 
the purport J the second respecting the language of thq Gospel. 

First then of the jmrport, viz. what the Gospel does not, 
and what it does profess to be. The Gospel is not a system of 
Theology, nor a Syntagma of Theoretical propositions and 
conclusions for the enlargement of speculative knowledge, eth- 
ical or metaphysical. But it is a History, a series of Facts and 
Events related or announced. These do indeed, involve, or 
rather I should say they at the same time are^ most important 
doctrinal Truths ; but still Facts and Declaration of Facts. 

Secondly of the language. This is a wide subject. But 
the point, to which I chiefly advert, is the necessity of tho- 
roughly understanding the distinction between analogous and 
metaphorical language. Analogies are used in aid of Convic- 
tion : Metaphors, as means of Illustration. The language is 



134 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

analogous, wherever a thing, power, or principle in a higher 
dignity is expressed hy the same thing, power, or principle in 
a lower but moie known form. Such, for instance, is the lan- 
guage of John iii. 6. That which is born of the Flesh, is 
Flesh ; that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit. The latter 
half of the verse contains the fact asserted ; the former half 
the analogous fact, by which it is rendered intelligible. If 
any man choose to call this metaphorical or figurative, I ask 
him whether with Hobbs and Bolingbroke he applies the same 
rule to the moral attributes of the Deity ? Whether he re- 
gards the divine Justice, for instance, as a metaphorical term, 
a mere figure of speech? If he disclaims this, then I answer, 
neither do I regard the words, born again, or spiritual life, as 
figures or metaphors. I have only to add, that these analogies 
are the material, or (to speak chemically) the base, of Sym- 
bols and symbolical expressions ; the nature of which as al- 
ways ^awtegorical (i. e. expressing the same subject but with 
a difference) in contra-distinction from metaphois and simili- 
tudes, that are always aZ/egoiical (i. e. expressing a different 
subject but with a resemblance) will be found explained at 
large in the Statesman's Manual, p. 35 — 38, [54]. 

Oi metaphorical language, on the other hand, let the follow- 
ing be taken as instance and illustration. 1 am speaking, we 
will suppose, of an Act, which in its own nature, and as a pro- 
ducing and efiicient cause, is transcendent ; but which produ- 
ces sundry effects, each of which is the same in kind with an 
effect produced by a Cause well known and of ordinary occur- 
rence. Now when I characterize or designate this transcen- 
dent Act, in exclusive reference to these its effects, by a suc- 
cession of names borrowed from their ordinary causes ; not 
for the purpose of rendering the Act itself, or the manner of 
the Agency, conceivable, but in order to show the nature and 
magnitude of the Benefits received from it, and thus to excite 
the due admiration, gratitude, and love in the Receivers; — in 
this case I should be rightly described as speaking metaphori- 
cally. And in this case to confound the similarity in respect 
of the effects relatively to the Recipients with an identity in 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 135 

respect of the causes or modes of causation i-elatively to the 
transcendent Act or the divine Agent, is a confusion of meta- 
phor with analogy, and of figurative with literal ; and has been 
and continues to be a fruitful source of superstition or enthu- 
siasm in Believers, and of objections and prejudices to Infidels 
and Sceptics. But each of these points is worthy of a sepa- 
rate consideration: and apt occasions will be found of revert- 
ing to them severally in the following Aphorisms or the^^com- 
ments thereto attached, 

APHORISM VIIL LEIGHTON. 

Faith elevates the soul not only above Sense and sensible 
things, but above Reason itself. As Reason corrects the er- 
rors which Sense might occasion, so supernatural Faith cor- 
rects the errors of natural reason judging according to sense. 

COMMENT. 

The Editor's remarks on this aphorism from Archbishop 
Leighton cannot be better introduced, or their purport more 
distinctly announced, than by the following sentence from 
Harrington, with no other change than w^as necessary to make 
the words express without aid of the context, what from the 
context it is evident was the Writer's meaning. " The defini- 
tion and proper character of Man — that, namely, which should 
contra-distinguish him from the Animals — is to be taken from 
his Reason rather than from his Understanding : in regard that 
in other creatures there may be something of Understanding 
but there is nothing of Reason." See the Friend, vol. i. p. 
263 — 277; and the Appendix (Note C.)to the Statesman's 
Manual, p. [55.] 

Sir Thomas Brown, in his ReUgio Medici, complains, that 
there are not impossibilities enough in Religion for his active 
faith ; and adopts by choice and in free preference such inter- 
pretations of certain texts and declarations of Holy Writ, as 
place them in irreconcilable contradiction to the demonstrations 
of science and experience of mankind, because ( says he ) I love 
to lose myself in a mystery, and 'tis my solitary recreation to 
pose my apprehension with those involved enigmas and riddles 



136 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

of the Trinity and Incarnation — " and because he delights (as 
thinking " it no vulgar part of faith) to believe a thing not on- 
ly above but contrary to Reason, and against the evidence of 
our proper senses. For the worthy knight could answer all 
the objections of the Devil and Reason ( ! ! ) "with the odd reso- 
lution he had learnt of TertuUian : Certum est quia impos- 
sibile est. It is certainly true because it is quite imposible !" 
Now this I call Ultra-fidianism[56]. 

Again, there is a scheme constructed on the principle of re- 
taining the social sympathies, that attend on the name of Be- 
liever, at the least possible expenditure of Belief — a scheme 
of picking and choosing Scripture texts for the support of doc- 
trines that had been learned beforehand from the higher oracle 
of Common Sense; which, as applied to the truths of Religion, 
means the popular part of the philosophy in fashion. Of course, 
the scheme differs at different times and in different Individuals 
in the number of articles excluded ; but, it may always be recog- 
nized by this permanent character, that its object is to draw re- 
ligion down to the Believer's intellect, instead of raising his in- 
tellect up to religion. And this extreme I call Minimifidian- 

ISM. 

Now if there be one Preventive of both these ex4;remes more 
efficacious than another, and preliminary to all the rest, it is 
the being made fully aware of the diversity of Reason and Un- 
derstanding/ And this is the more expedient, because though 
there is no want of authorities ancient and modern for the dis- 
tinction of the faculties and the distinct appropriation of the terras, 
yet our best writers too often confound the one with the other. 
Even Lord Bacon himself, who in his Novum Organum has so 
incomparably set forth the nature of the difierence, and the un- 
fitness of the latter faculty for the objects of the former, does 
(nevertheless in sundry places use the term Reason where he 
i means the Understanding, and sometimes, though less frequent- 
\ly, Understanding for Reason. In consequence of thus con- 
founding the two terms, or rather of wasting both words for 
the expression of one and the same faculty, he left himself no 
appropriate term for the other and higher gift of Reason, and 



Al^HORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGIO?^. 137 

Was thus under the necessity of adopting fantastic and mystical 
phrases, ex. gr. the dry light (lumen siccum), the lucific vis- 
ion, &c., meaning thereby nothing more than Reason in con- 
tra-distinction from the Understanding. Thus too in the prece- 
ding Aphorism, by Reason Leighton means the human Un- 
derstanding, the explanation annexed to it being (by a notice- 
able coincidence ) word for word the very definition which the 
Founder of the Critical Philosophy gives of the Understand- 
ing—namely, " the Faculty judging according to Sense." 

On the contrary, Reason is the Power of universal and neces- 
sary Convictions, the Source and Substance of Truths above 
Sense, and having their evidence in themselves. Its pres- 
ence is always marked by the necessity of the position affirmed : 
this necessity being conditional^ when a truth of Reason is ap- 
plied to Facts of Experience or to the rules and maxims of the 
Understanding, but absolute^ when the subject matter is itself 
the growth or offspring of the Reason. Hence arises a distinc- 
tion in the Reason itself, derived from the different mode of 
applying it, and from the objects to which it is directed : accor; 
ding as we consider one and the same gift, now as the ground 
of formal principles, and now as the origin of ideas. Contem-. 
plated distinctively in reference to formal (or abstract) truth, 
it is the speculative Reason ; but in reference to actual ( or mor- 
al) truth, as the fountain of ideas and the Light of the Con- 
science, we name it the practical Reason. Whenever by self- 
subjection to this universal Light, the Will of the Individual, 
the particular Will, has become a Will of Reason, the man is 
regenerate : and Reason is then the Spirit of the regenerated 
man, whereby the Person is capable of a quickening inter- 
communion with the Divine Spirit. And herein consists the 
mystery of Redemption, that this has been rendered possible 
for us. "And so it is written: the first man Adam was made 
a living soul, the last Adam a quickening Spirit." ( 1 Cor. xv. 
45). We need only compare the passages in the writings of 
the Apostles, Paul and John, concerning the Spirit and Spiri- 
tual Gifts, with those in the Proverbs and in the Wisdom of 
Solomon respec<ang Reason, to be convinced that the terms 

18 



138 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

are synonymous. In this at once most comprehensive and 
most appropriate acceptation of the word, Reason is preemi- 
nently spiritual, and a Spirit, even oitr Spirit, through an 
effluence of the same grace by which we are privileged to say 
Our Father ! 

On the other hand, the Judgments of the Understanding are 
binding only in relation to the objects of our Senses, which we 
reflect under the forms of the Understanding. It is, as Leighton 
rightly defines it, " the Faculty judging according to Sense." 
Hence we add the epithet /ii^ma?i, without tautology : and speak 
of the human Understanding, in disjunction from that of Be- 
ings higher or lower than man. But there is, in this sense, no 
human Reason. There neither is nor can be but one Reason, 
one and the same : even the Light that lighteth every man's 
individual Understanding, (Discursus) and thus maketh it a 
reasonable Understanding, Discourse of Reason — " one only, 
yet manifold ; it goeth through all understanding, and remain- 
ing in itself regenerateth all other powers." (Wisdom of Solo- 
mon, c. 8). The same writer calls it likewise "an influence 
from the Glory of the Almighty ^^^ this being one of the names 
of the Messiah, as the Logos, or co-eternal Filial Word. And 
most noticeable for its coincidence is a fragment of Heraclitus, 
as I have indeed already noticed elsewhere. "To discourse 
rationally it behooves us to derive strength from that which is- 
common to all men : for all human Understandings are nour- 
ished by the one Divine Word." 

Beasts, we have said, partake of Understanding. If any 
man deny this, there is a ready way of settling the question. 
Let him give a careful perusal to Hiiber's two small volumes, 
on Bees and on Ants (especially the latter), and to Kirby and 
Spence's Introduction to Entomology : and one or otKer of 
two things must follow. He will either change his opinion as 
irreconcilable with the facts : or he must deny the facts, which 
yet I cannot suppose, inasmuch as the denial would be tanta- 
mount to the no less extravagant than uncharitable assertion, 
that Hiiber, and the several eminent Naturalists, French and 
English, Swiss, German, and Italian, by whom Hiiber's ob- 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 139 

servations and experiments have been repeated and confirmed, 
had all conspired to impose a series of falsehoods and fairy- 
tales on the world. I see no way at least, by which he can get 
out of this dilemma, but by over-leaping the admitted Rules 
and Fences of all legitimate Discussion, and either transfer- 
ring to the word. Understanding, the definition already appro- 
priated to Reason, or defining Understanding in genere by the 
specific and accessional perfections which the human Under- 
standing derives from its co-existence with Reason and Free- 
will in the same individual person: in plainer words, from its 
being exercised by a self-conscious and responsible Crea- 
ture. And after all, the supporter of Harrington's position 
would have a right to ask him, by what other name he would 
designate the faculty in the instances referred to ? If it be 
not Understanding, what is it ? 

In no former part of this volume has the Editor felt the 
same anxiety to obtain a patient Attention. For he does not 
hesitate to avow, that on his success in establishing the validi- 
ty and importance of the distinction between Reason and Un- 
derstanding, he rests his hopes of carrying the Reader along 
with him through all that is to follow. Let the Student but 
clearly see and comprehend the diversity in the things them- 
selves, the expediency of a correspondent distinction and ap- 
propriation of the tvords will follow of itself. Turn back for a 
moment to the Aphorism, and having re-perused the first para- 
graph of this Comment thereon, regard the two following nar- 
ratives as the illustration. I do not say proof: for I take these 
from a multitude of facts equally striking for the one only pur- 
pose of placing my meaning out of all doubt. 

I. Hiiber put a dozen Humble-bees under a Bell-glass along 
with a eomb of about ten silken cocoons, so unequal in height 
as not to be capable of standing steadily. To remedy this two 
or three of the Humble-bees got upon the comb, stretched 
themselves over its edge, and with their heads downwards 
fixed their fore feet on the table on which the comb stood, 
and so with their hind feet kept the comb from falling. When 
these were weary others took their places. In this constrained 



140 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

and painful posture, fresh bees relieving their comrades at in- 
tervals, and each working in its turn, did these affectionate lit- 
tle insects support the comb for nearly three days, at the end 
of which they had prepared sufficient wax to build pillars with. 
But these pillars having accidentally got displaced, the bees 
had recourse again to the same manoeuvre ( or rather pcdceu- 
vre),till Hiiber pitying their hard case, &c. 

II. " I shall at present describe the operations of a single ant 
that I observed sufficiently long to satisfy my curiosity. 

" One rainy day, I observed a Labourer digging the ground 
near the aperture which gave entrance to the ant-hill. It 
placed in a heap the several fragments it had scraped up, and 
formed them into small pellets, which it deposited here and 
there upon the nest. It returned constantly to the same place, 
and appeared to have a marked design, for it laboured with 
ardour and perseverance. I remarked a slight furrow, excava- 
ted in the ground in a straight line, representing the plan of 
a path or gallery. The Labourer, the whole of whose move- 
ments fell under my immediate observation, gave it greater 
depth and breadth, and cleared out its borders : and I saw at 
length, in which I could not be deceived, that it had the inten- 
tion of establishing an avenue which was to lead from one of 
the stories to the under-ground chambers. This path, which was 
about two or three inches in length, and formed by a single ant, 
was opened above and bordered on each side by a buttress of 
earth ; its concavity en forme de gouttiere was of the most 
perfect regularity, for the architect had not left an atom too 
much. The work of this ant was so w ell followed and under- 
stood, that I could almost to a certainty guess its next proceed- 
ing, and the very fragment it was about to remove. At the side 
of the opening where this path terminated, was a second opening 
to which it was necessary to arrive by some road. The same 
ant engaged in and executed alone this undertaking. It fur- 
rowed out and opened another path, parallel to the first, leav- 
ing between each a little wall of three or four lines in height. 
Those ants who lay the foundation of a wall, a chamber, or 
gallery, from working separately occasion now and then a \> ant 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 141 

of coincidence in the parts of the same or different objects. 
Such examples are of no unfrequent occurrence, but they by- 
no means embarrass them. What follows proves that the 
workman, on discovering his error, knew how to rectify 
it. A wall had been erected with the view of sustaining a 
vaulted ceiling, still incomplete, that had been projected from 
the wall of the opposite chamber. The workman who began 
constructing it, had given it too little elevation to meet the op- 
posite partition upon which it was to rest. Had it been con- 
tinued on the original plan, it must infallibly have met the wall 
at about one half of its height, and this it was necessary to 
avoid. This state of things very forcibly claimed my atten- 
tion, when one of the ants arriving at the place, and visiting 
the works, appeared to be struck by the difficulty which pre- 
sented itself; but this it as soon obviated, by taking down the 
ceiling and raising the wall upon which it reposed. It then in 
my presence, constructed a new ceiling with the fragments of 
the former one." — Huberts Nat. Hist, of Ants ^ p. 38 — 41. 

Now I assert, that the faculty manifested in the acts here 
narrated does not differ in kind from Understanding, and that 
it does so differ from Reason. What I conceive the former to 
be. Physiologically considered, will be shown hereafter. In 
this place I take the Understanding as it exists in Men, and in 
exclusive reference to its intelligential functions ; and it is in 
this sense of the word that I am to prove the necessity of con- 
tra-distinguishing it from Reason. 

Premising then, that two or more Subjects having the same 
essential characters are said to fall under the same General 
Definition, I lay it down, as a self-evident truth, (it is, in fact, 
an identical proposition), that whatever subjects fall under one 
and the same General Definition are of one and the same 
kind : consequently, that which does not fall under this defini- 
tion, must differ in kind from each and all of those that 
do. Difference in degree does indeed suppose sameness in 
kind : and difference in kind precludes distinction from differ- 
ences of degree. Ileterogenea non comparari ergo nee distin- 
gui possunt. The inattention to this Rule gives rise to the 



142 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

numerous Sophisms comprised by Aristotle under the head of 
Msra(3a(fis e«^ aXXo yevog, i. e. Transition into a new kind, or the 
falsely applying to X what had been truly asserted of A, and 
might have been true of X had it differed from A in its degree 
only. The sophistry consists in the omission to notice what 
not being noticed will be supposed not to exist ; and where 
the silence respecting the difference in kind is tantamount to 
an assertion that the difference is merely in degree. But 
the fraud is especially gross, where the heterogeneous subject, 
thus clandestinely slipt in, is in its own nature insusceptible of 
degree : such as, for instance. Certainty or Circularity, contrast- 
ed with Strength, or Magnitude. 

To apply these remarks for our present purpose, we have 
only to describe Understanding and Reason, each by its char- 
acteristic qualities. The comparison will show the difference. 

UNDERSTANDING. REASON. 

1. Understanding is discur- 1. Reason is fixed. 
sive. 

2. The Understanding in all 2. The Reason in all its de- 
its judgments refers to some cisions appeals to itself, as the 
other Faculty as] its ultimate ground and substance of their 
Authority. truth. ( Hebrews jyL v. IS). 

3. Understanding is the 3. Reason of Contempla- 
Faculty of Reflection. tion. Reason indeed is far 

nearer to sense than to Un- 
derstanding : for Reason ( says 
our great Hooker) is a direct 
Aspect of Truth, an inward 
Beholding, having a similar 
relation to the Intelligible or 
Spiritual, as Sense has to the 
Material or Phenomenal. 
The Result is, that neither falls under the definition of the 
other. They differ in kind : and had my object been confined 
to the establishment of this fact, the preceding Columns would 
have superseded all further disquisition. But 1 have ever in 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 143 

view the especial interests of my youthful Readers, whose re- 
fieciive 2)0wer is to be cultivated, as well as their particular re- 
flections to be called forth and guided. Now the main chance 
of their reflecting on religious subjects aright, and of their at- 
taining to the contemplation of spiritual truths at all, rests on 
their insight into the nature of this disparity still more than 
on their conviction of its existence. I now, therefore, proceed 
to a brief analysis of the Understanding, in elucidation of the 
definitions already given. 

The Understanding then ( considered exclusively as an or- 
gan of human intelligence), is the Faculty by which we re- 
flect and generalize. Take, for instance, any Object consist- 
ing of many parts, a House, or a Group of Houses : and if it 
be contemplated, as a Whole, i. e. (as many constituting a 
One), it vforms what in the technical language of Psychology 
is called a total impression. Among the various component 
parts of this, we direct our attention especially to such as we 
recollect to have noticed in other total impressions. Then, by 
a voluntary Act we withhold qur attention from all the rest to 
reflect exclusively on these : and these we henceforward use 
as common characters, by virtue of which the several Objects 
are referred to one and the same sort,[57]. Thus, the whole 
Process may be reduced to three acts, all depending on and sup- 
posing a previous impression on the Senses : first, the appro- 
priation of our Attention; 2. (and in order to the continuance 
of the first) Abstraction, or the voluntary withholding of the 
Attention . and 3. Generalization. And these are the proper 
Functions of the Understanding : and the power of so doing is 
what we mean when we say we possess Understanding, or are 
created with the Faculty of Understanding. 

[It is obvious, that the third Function includes the act of 
comparing one object with another. In a note (for, not to in- 
terrupt the argument, I avail myself of this most useful con- 
trivance), I have shown, that the act of comparing supposes 
in the comparing Faculty certain inherent Forms, that is, 
Modes of Reflecting not referable to the Objects reflected on, 
but pre-determined by the Constitution and (as it were) me- 



144 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

chanism of the Understanding itself. And under some one or 
other of these Forms[58], the Resemblances and Differences 
must be subsumed in order to be conceivable, and a fortiori 
therefore in order to be comparable. The Senses do not 
compare, but merely furnish the materials for comparison. But 
this the Reader will find explained in the Note : and will now 
cast his eye back to the sentence immediately preceding this 
parenthesis]. 

Now when a person speaking to us of any particular Object 
or Appearance refers it by means of some common character 
to a known class (which he does in giving it a name), we say, 
that we understand him ; i, e. we understand his words. The 
Name of a thing, in the original sense of the word Name, 
(Nomen^ Noujasvov, to intelligibile, id quod intelligitur) express- 
es that which is understood in an appearance, that which we 
place (or make to stand) under it, as the condition of its real 
existence, and in proof that it is not an accident of the Senses, 
or affection of the Individual, not a phantom or Apparition, i. 
e. an Appearance that is only an Appearance. ( See Gen. ii. 
19, 20. Thus too, in Psalm xx. v. 1. and in fifty other places 
of the Bible, the identity of nomen with numen, L e. invisible 
power and presence, the noinen substantivum of all real Ob* 
jects, and the ground of their reality, independent of the Af- 
fections of Sense in the Percipient). In like manner, in a 
connected succession of Names, as the Speaker passes from 
one to the other, we say that we understand his discourse (i. 
e. discursio intellectus, discursus from discurso or discurro, to 
course or pass rapidly from one thing to another). Thus, in 
all instances, it is words, names, or, if images, yQi images used 
as words or names, that are the alone subjects of Understand- 
ing. In no instance do we understand a thing in itself; but 
only the name to which it is referred. Sometimes indeed, 
when several classes are recalled conjointly, we identify the 
words with the Object — though by courtesy of idiom rather 
than in strict propriety of language. Thus, we may say that 
we understand a Rainbow, when recalling successively the 
several Names for the several sorts of Colours, we know that 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 145 

they are to be applied to one and the same Phaenomenon, at 
once distinctly and simultaneously ; but even in common par- 
lance we should not say this of a single colour. No one would 
say he understands Red or Blue. He sees the Colour, and 
had seen it before in a vast number and variety of objects ; 
and he understands the word red, as referring his fancy or me- 
mory to this his collective experience. 

If this be so and so it most assuredly is, if the proper functions 
of the understanding be that of generalizing the notices recei- 
ved from the Senses in order to the construction of Names ; of 
referring particular notices (i. e. impressions or sensations) to 
their proper Name ; and vice versa, names to their correspond- 
ent class or kind of Notices — then it follows of necessity, that 
the understanding is truly and accurately defined in the words 
of Leighton and Kant, a Faculty judging according to Sense. 
Now whether in defining the speculative Reason (t. e. the 
Reason considered abstractedly as an intellective Power) we 
call it " the source of necessary and universal Principles, ac- 
cording to which the Notices 6f the Senses are either affirm- 
ed or denied ;" or describe it as " the Power by which we are 
enabled to draw from particular and contingent Appearances 
universal and necessary conclusions [59]: it is equally evident 
that the two definitions differ in their essential characters, and 
consequently (by Axiom, p. 142) the subjects difter in kind. 

Q. E. D. 

The dependence of the Understanding on the representa- 
tions of the Senses, and its consequent posteriority thereto, as 
contrasted with the independence and antecedency of Reason, 
are strikingly exemplified in the Ptolemaic System ( that truly 
w^onderful product and highest boast of the Faculty, judging 
according to the Senses ! ) compared with the Newtonian, as 
the Offspring of a yet higher Power, arranging, correcting, and 
annulling the representations of the Senses according to its 
own inherent Laws and constitutive Ideas. 

APHORISM IX. EDITOR. 

In Wonder all Philosophy began : in Wonder it ends : and 

19 



146 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Admiration fills up the interspace. But the first Wonder is 
the Offspring of Ignorance : the last is the Parent of Adora- 
tion. The First is the biith-throe of our knowledge : the 
Last is its euthanasy and apotheosis. 

SEQUELS : OR THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY THE PRECEDING 
APHORISM. 

As in respect of the first Wonder wg are all on the same 
Level, how comes it that the philosophic mind should in all 
ages be the privilege of a Few ? The most obvious reason is 
this : The Wonder takes place before the period of Reflection, 
and (with the great Mass of Mankind) long before the Indi- 
vidual is capable of directing his attention freely and conscious- 
ly to the Feeling, or even to its exciting Causes. Surprise 
( the form and dress which the Wonder of Ignorance usually 
puts on) is worn away, if not precluded, by Custom and Fa- 
miliarity. So is it with the Objects of the Senses, and the 
ways and fashions of the World around us : even as with the 
Beat of our own hearts, which we notice only in moments of 
Fear and Perturbation. But with regard to the concerns of 
our inward Being, there is yet another cause that acts in con- 
cert with the power in Custom to prevent a fair and equal ex- 
ertion of reflective Thought. The great fundamental Truths 
and Doctrines of Religion, the existence and attributes of God, 
and the Life after Death, are in Christian Countries taught so 
early, under such circumstances, and in such close and vital 
association with whatever makes or marks reality for our in- 
fant minds, that the words ever after represent sensations, 
feelings, vital assurances, sense of reality — rather than thoughts, 
or any distinct conception. Associated, / had almost said 
identified, with the parental Voice, Look, Touch, with the 
living warmth and pressure of the Mother, on whose lap the 
Child is first made to kneel, within whose palms its little hands 
are folded, and the motion of whose eyes its eyes follow and 
imitate — (yea, what the blue sky is to the Mother, the Mo- 
ther's upraised Eyes and Brow are to the Child, the Type and 
Symbol of an invisible Heaven !) — from within and from with- 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 147 

out, these great First Truths, these good and gracious Tidings, 
these holy and humanizing Spells, in the preconformity to 
which our very humanity may be said to consist, are so infu- 
sed, that it were but a tame and inadequate expression to say, 
we all take them for granted. At a later period, in Youth or 
early Manhood, most of us, indeed, (in the higher and middle 
classes at least) read or hear certain Proofs of these truths — 
which we commonly listen to, when we listen at all, with much 
the same feelings as a popular Prince on his Coronation Day, 
in the centre of a fond and rejoicing Nation, may be supposed 
to hear the Champion's challenge to all the Non-existents, that 
deny or dispute his Rights and Royalty. In fact, the order of 
Proof is most often reversed or transposed. As far, at least, 
as I dare judge from the goings on in my own mind, when with 
keen delight I first read the works of Derham, Niewentiet, 
and Lyonet, I should say, that the full and life-like conviction 
of a gracious Creator is the Proof (at all events, performs the 
office and answers all the purpose of a proof) of the wisdom 
and benevolence in the construction of the Creature. 

Do I blame this ? Do I wish it to be otherwise ? God forbid ! 
It is only one of its accidental, but too frequent, consequences, 
of which I complain, and against which I protest. I regret 
nothing that tends to make the Light become the Life of men, 
even as the Life in the eternal Word is their alone true light. 
But I do regret, that in after years — when by occasion of some 
new dispute on some old heresy, or any other accident, the 
attention has for the first time been distinctly attracted to the 
superstructure raised on these fundamental truths, or to truths 
of later revelation supplemental of these and not less impor- 
tant—all the doubts and difficulties, that cannot but arise where 
the Understanding, " the mind of the flesh,'' is made the mea- 
sure of spiritual things ; all the sense of strangeness and seem- 
ing contradiction in terms ; all the Marvel and the Mystery 
that belong equally to both ; are first thought of and applied 
in objection exclusively to the latter. I would disturb no 
man's faith in the great articles of the (falsely so called) Re- 
ligion of Nature. But before the man rejects, and calls on 



148 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

other men to reject, the revelations of the Gospel and the Ee- 
ligion of all Christendom, I would have him place himself in 
the state and under all the privations of a Simonides, when on 
the fortieth day of his meditation the sage and philosophic Po- 
et abandoned the Problem in despair. Ever and anon he seem- 
ed to have hold of the truth ; but when he asked himself, what 
he meant by it, it escaped from him, or resolved itself into 
meanings, that destroyed each other. I would have the Scep- 
tic, w^hile yet a Sceptic only, seriously consider whether a Doc- 
trine, of the truth of which a Socrates could obtain no other 
assurance than what he derived from his strong wish that it 
should be true ; or that which Plato found a Mystery hard to 
discover, and when discovered, communicable only to the few- 
est of men ; can, consonantly with History or Common Sense, 
be classed among the Articles, the belief of which is ensured 
to all men by their mere common sense ? Whether, without 
gross outrage to fact, they can be said to constitute a Religion 
of nature, or a Natural Theology antecedent to Revelation or 
superseding its necessity? Yes! in prevention (for there is 
little chance, I fear, of a cure) of the pugnacious dogmatism 
of partial Reflection, I would prescribe to every man, who 
feels a commencing alienation from the Catholic Faith, and 
whose studies and attainments authorise him to argue on the 
subject at all, a patient and thoughtful perusal of the arguments 
and representations which Bayle supposes to have passed 
through the mind of Simonides. Or I should be fully satisfied 
if I could induce these Eschewers of Mystery to give a pa- 
tient, manly, and impartial perusal to the single Treatise of 
Pomponatius, De Fato[60]. 

When they have fairly and satisfactorily overthrown the ob- 
jections and cleared away the difficulties urged by this sharp- 
witted Italian against the Doctrines which they profess to re- 
tain, then let them commence their attack on those which they 
reject. As far as the supposed irrationality of the latter is the 
ground of Argument, I am much deceived if on reviewing 
their forces they would not find the ranks woefully thinned by 
the success of their own fire in the preceding Engagement — 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL. RELIGION. 149 

unless, indeed, by pure heat of Controversy, and to storm the 
lines of their Antagonists, they can bring to life again the Argu- 
ments, which they had themselves killed off in the defence of 
their own positions. In vain shall we seek for any other mode 
of meeting the broad facts of the scientific Epicurean, or the re- 
quisitions and queries of the all-analysing Pyrrhonist, than by 
challenging the tribunal to which they appeal, as incompetent 
to try the question. In order to non-suit the infidel Plaintiff, 
we must remove the cause from the Faculty, that judges accord- 
ing to Sense, and whose judgments, therefore, are valid only 
on objects of Sense, to the Superior Courts of Conscience and 
intuitive Reason ! " The words I speak unto you, are Spint,^^ 
and such only " are li/e,^'' i, e, have an inward and actual power 
abiding in them. 

But the same truth is at once Shield and Bow. The Shaft of 
Atheism glances aside from it to strike and pierce the breast- 
plate of the Heretic. Well for the Latter, if plucking the 
weapon from the wound he recognizes an arrow from his own 
Quiver, and abandons a cause that connects him with such 
Confederates! Without further rhetoric, the sum and sub- 
stance of the Argument is this : an insight into the proper 
functions and subaltern rank of the Understanding may not 
indeed, disarm the Psilanthropist of his metaphorical Glosses 
or of his Versions fresh from the forge and with no other stamp 
than the private mark of the individual Manufacturer ; but it 
will deprive him of the only rational pretext for having re- 
course to tools so liable to abuse, and of such perilous exam- 
ple. 

COMMENT. 

Since the preceding pages were composed, and during an 
interim of depression and disqualification, I heard with a de- 
light and an interest, that I might without hyperbole call me- 
dicinal, that the contra-distinction of Understanding from Rea- 
son, for which during twenty years I have been contending, 
"casting my bread upon the Waters" with a perseverance, 
which in the existing state of the public taste nothing but the 



160 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

deepest conviction of its importance could have inspired — has 
been lately adopted and sanctioned by the present distinguish- 
ed Professor of Anatomy, in the Course of Lectures given 
by him at the Royal College of Surgeons, on the Zoological 
part of Natural History ; and if I am rightly informed, in one 
of the eloquent and impressive introductory Discourses. In 
explaining the Nature of Instinct, as deduced from the actions 
and tendencies of animals successively presented to the Ob- 
servation of the Comparative Physiologist in the ascending 
Scale of Organic Life — or rather, I should have said, in an at- 
tempt to determine that precise import of the Term, which is 
required by the facts[61] — the Professor explained the nature 
of what I have elsewhere called the Adoptive Poiver, i. e. the 
faculty of adapting means to proximate ends. [N. B. I mean 
here a relative end — that which relatively to one thing is an 
end, though relatively to some other it is itself a means. It is 
to be regretted, that we have no single word to express these 
ends, that are not the end : for the distinction between these 
and an end in the proper sense of the term is an important 
one.] The Professor, I say, not only explained, first, the Na- 
ture of the Adaptive Power in genere, and, secondly, the dis- 
tinct character of the same Power as it exists specifically and 
exclusively in the human being, and acquires the name of Un- 
derstanding ; but he did it in a way w^hich gave the whole sum 
and substance of my convictions, of all I had so long wished, 
and so often, but with such imperfect success, attempted to 
convey, free from all semblance of Paradoxy, and from all oc- 
casion of offence — omnem ofrendiculi[62] ansam priecidens. 
It is, indeed for the fragmentary reader only that I have any 
scruple. In those who have had the patience to accompany 
me so far on the up-hill road to manly Principles, I can have 
no reason to guard against that disposition to hasty offence 
from Anticipation of Consequences, that faithless and loveless 
spirit of fear which plunged Galilseo into a Prison [63] — a spi- 
rit most unworthy of an educated man, who ought to have 
learnt that the Mistakes of scientific men have never injured 
Christianity, while every new truth discovered by them has 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 151 

either addedto its evidence, or prepared the mind for its re- 
ception. 

ON INSTINCT IN CONNEXION WITH THE UNDERSTANDING. 

It is evident that the definition of a Genus or Class is an 
adequate definition only of the lowest cpecies of that Genus : 
for each higher species is distinguished from the lower by some 
additional character, while the General Definition includes only 
the characters common to all the Species. Consequently it 
describes the lowest only. Now I distinguish a Genus or kind 
of Powers under the name of Adaptive Power, and give as its 
generic definition— the Power of selecting, and adapting means 
to proximate ends ; and as an instance of the lowest species of 
this Genus, I take the stomach of a Caterpillar. I ask myself, 
under what words I can generalize the action of this Organ ; 
and I see, that it selects and adapts the appropriate means (i. 
e. the assimilable part of the vegetable congesta) to the prox- 
imate end, i. e. the growth or reproduction of the Insect's Bo- 
dy, This we call vital power, or vita propria of the Stom- 
ach ; and this being the lowest species, its definition is the 
same with the definition of the kind. 

Well! from the Power of the Stomach I pass to the Power 
exerted by the whole animal. I trace it wandering from spot 
to spot, and plant to plant, till it finds the appropriate vegeta- 
ble; and again on this chosen vegetable, I mark it seeking out 
and fixing on the part of the plant, bark, leaf, or petal, suited 
to its nourishment : or ( should the animal have assumed the 
butterfly form), to the deposition of its eggs, and the sustenta- 
tion of the future Larva. Here I see a power of selecting and 
adapting means to proximate ends according to circumstances : 
and this higher species of Adaptive Power we call Instinct. 

Lastly, I reflect on the facts narrated and described in the 
preceding extracts from Huber, and see a power of selecting 
and adapting the proper means to the proximate ends, accord- 
ing to varying circumstances. And what shall we call this yet 
higher species? We name the former, Instinct: we must call 
this Instinctive IntelliSgence. 



152 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Here then we have three Powers of the same kind, Life, 
Instinct, and instinctive Intelligence : the essential characters 
that define the genus existing equally in all three. But in 
addition to these, I find one other character common to the 
highest and lowest : viz. that the purposes are all manifestly 
pre-determined by the peculiar organization of the Animals; 
and though it may not be possible to discover any such imme- 
diate dependency in all the Actions, yet the Actions being de- 
termined by the purposes, tlie result is equivalent : and both 
the Actions and Purposes are all in a necessitated reference to 
the preservation and continuance of the particular Animal or 
of the Progeny. There is selection, but not choice : volition 
rather than Will. The possible knowledge of a thing, or the 
desire to have the thing representable by a distinct correspon- 
dent Thought, does not, in the animal, suffice to render the 
thing an object, or the ground of a purpose. I select and 
adapt the proper means to the separation of a stone from a 
rock, which I neither can, or desire to, make use of for food, 
shelter, or ornament : because, peihaps, I wish to measure 
the angles of its primary crystals, or perhaps, for no better reason 
than the apparent difficulty of loosening the stone — stat pro 
ratione Voluntas — and thus make a motive out of the absence 
of all motive, and a reason out of the arbitrary will to act with- 
out any reason. 

Now what is the conclusion from these premises ? Evident- 
ly this : that if I suppose the Adaptive Power in its highest 
species or form of Instinctive Intelligence to co-exist with 
Reason, Free will, and Self-consciousness, it instantly becomes 
UNDERSTANDING : iu Other words, that Understanding differs 
indeed from the noblest form of Instinct, but not in itself or in 
its own essential properties, but in consequence of its co-exis- 
tence with far higher Powers of a diverse kind in one and the 
same Subject. Instinct in a rational, responsible, and self- 
conscious Animal, is Understanding. 

Such I apprehend to have been the Professor's View and 
Exposition of Instinct — and in confirmation of its truth, I would 
merely request my Readers, from the numerous well-authen- 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 153 

ticated instances oh record, to recall some one of the extraor- 
dinary actions of Dogs for the preservation of their Masters' 
lives, and even for the avenging of their deaths. In these in- 
stances we have the third species of the Adaptive Power, in 
connexion with an apparently moral end — with an end in the 
proper sense of the word. Here the Adaptive Power co-ex- 
ists with a purpose apparently voluntary^ and the action seems 
neither pre-determined by the organization of the Animal, nor 
in any direct reference to his own preservation, or to the con- 
tinuance of his race. It is united with an imposing semblance 
of Gratitude, Fidelity, and disinterested Love. We not only 
value the faithful brute ; we attribute worth to him. This, I 
admit, is a problem, of which I have no solution to offer. One 
of the wisest of uninspired men has not hesitated to declare 
the Dog a great mystery, on account of this dawning of a moral 
nature unaccompanied by any the least evidence of Reason, 
in whichever of the iwo senses we interpret the word — wheth- 
er as the practical Reason, i. e. the power of proposing an ul- 
timaie end, the determinability of the Will by ideas : or as 
the sciential Reason, i. e. the faculty of concluding universal 
and necessary truths from particular and contingent appearan- 
ces. But in a question respecting the possesion of Reason, 
the absence of all proof is tantamount to a proof of the contra- 
ry. It is, however, by no means equally clear to me, that the 
Dog may not possess an analogon of Words, which I have 
elsewhere shown to be the proper objects of the " Faculty, 
judging according to Sense." 

But to return to my purpose: I entreat the Reader to re- 
flect on any one fact of this kind, whether occurring in his own 
experience, or selected from the numerous anecdotes of the 
Dog preserved in the writings of Zoologists. I will then con- 
fidently appeal to him, whether it is in his power not to con- 
sider the faculty displayed in these actions as the same in kind 
with the Understanding, however inferior m degree. Or 
should he even in these instances prefer calling it Instinct, and 
this in con^ra-distinction from Understanding, I call on him 
to point out the boundary between the two, the chasm or par- 

20 



154 AIDS TO RErLECTION. 

tition-wall that divides or separates the one from the other. 
If he can, he will have done what none before him have been 
able to do, though many and eminent men have tried hard for 
it: and my recantation shall be among the first trophies of 
his success. If he cannot, I must infer that he is controlled 
by his dread of the consequences, by an apprehension of some 
injury resulting to Religion or Morality from this opinion ; and 
I shall console myself with the hope, that in the sequel of this 
work he will find proofs of the direct contrary tendency. Not 
only is this view of the Understanding, as differing in degree 
from Instinct and in kind from Reason, innocent in its possible 
influences on the religious character, but it is an indispensible 
preliminary to the removal of the most formidable obstacles to 
an intelligent Belief of the peculiar Doctrines of the Gospel, of 
the characteristic Articles of the Christian Faith, with which 
the Advocates of the truth in Christ have to contend ; the evil 
heart of Unbelief alone excepted. 

REFLECTIONS BY THE EDITOR INTRODUCTORY TO APHORISM 
THE TENTH. 

The most momentous question a man can ask is, Have I a 
Saviour ! And yet, as far as the individual Querist is con- 
cerned it is premature and to no purpose, except another ques- 
tion has been previously put and answered ( alas ! too generally 
put after the wounded Conscience has already given the an- 
swer!) viz. Have I any need of a Saviour? For him who 
needs none, (O, bitter irony of the Evil Spirit, whose whis- 
pers the proud Soul takes for its own thoughts, and knows not 
how the Tempter is scoffing the while ! ) there is none, as long 
as he feels no need. On the other hand, it is scarce possible 
to have answered this question in the affirmative, and not ask — 
first, in ivhat the necessity consists ? secondly, whence it pro- 
ceeded ? and, thirdly, how far the answer to this second ques- 
tion is or is not contained in the answer to the first ! I entreat 
the intelligent Reader, who has taken me as his temporary 
guide on the strait, but yet, from the number of cross roads, 
difficult way of religious Inquiry, to halt a moment, and con- 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 155 

sider the main points that in this last division of our work 
have been aheady offered for his reflection. I have attempted 
then to fix the proper meaning of the words Nature and Spirit, 
the one being the antithesis to the other : so that the most 
general and negative definition of Nature is, Whatever is not 
Spirit ; and vice versa of Spirit, That which is not compre- 
hended in Nature : or in the language of our elder Divines, 
that which transcends Nature. But Nature is the term in 
which we comprehend all things that are representable in the 
forms of Time and Space, and subjected to the Relations of 
Cause and Effect: and the cause of whose existence therefore 
is to be sought for perpetually in something Antecedent. The 
word itself expresses this in the strongest manner possil)le : 
Natura, that which is about to be born, that which is always 
becoming. It follows, therefore, that whatever originates its 
own acts, or in any sense contains in itself the cause of its own 
state, must be spiritual^ and consequently super-natural : yet 
not on that account necessarily miraculous. And such must 
the responsible Will in us be, if it be at all. ( See p. 87 — 92. ) 

A prior step had been to remove all misconceptions from 
the subject ; to show the reasonableness of a belief in the real- 
ity and real influence of a universal and divine Spirit ; the 
compatibility and possible communion of such a Spirit with the 
Spiritual Piinciple in Individuals; and the analogy offered by 
the most undeniable truths of Natural Philosophy [G4]. (See 
p. 41—46). 

These Views of the Spirit, and of the Will as Spiritual, 
form the ground-work of our Scheme, Among the numerous 
Corollaries or Appendents, the first that presented itself re- 
spects the question. Whether there is any faculty in man by 
which a knowledge of spiritual truths or of any truths not ab- 
stracted from Nature, is rendered possible? and an Answer is 
attempted in Comment on Aphorism Vlllth. And here I beg 
leave to remark, that in this Comment the only Novelty, and, 
if there be Merit, the only Merit is — that there being two very 
different Meanings, and two different Words, I have here and 
in former Works appropriated one meaning to one of the 



156 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Words, and the other to the other — instead of using the words 
indiiferently and by hap-hazard ; a confusion, the ill effects of 
which in this instance are so great and of such frequent occur- 
rence in the works of our ablest Philosophers and Divines, that 
I should select it before all others in proof of Hobbes's Maxim : 
that it is a short and downhill passage from errors in words to 
errors in things. The distinctness of the Reason from the Un- 
derstanding, and the imperfection and limited sphere of the lat- 
ter, have been asserted by many both before and since Lord 
Bacon [65] ; but still the habit of using Reason and Understand- 
ing as synonymes, acted as a disturbing force. Some it led 
into mysticism, others it set on explaining away a clear differ- 
ence in kind into a mere superiority in degree : and it partially 
eclipsed the truth for all. 

In close connexion with this, and therefore forming the 
Comment on the Aphorism next following, is the Subject of 
the legitimate exercise of the Understanding and its limitation 
to Objects of Sense ; with the errors both of unbelief and 
of misbelief, that result from its extension beyond the sphere 
of possible Experience. Wherever the forms of Reasoning 
appropriate only to the natural world are applied to spiritual 
realities, it may be truly said, that the more strictly logical the 
Reasoning is in all its parts^ the more irrational it is as a whole. 

The Reader thus armed and prepared, I now venture to pre- 
sent the so called mysteries of Faith, i. e. the peculiar tenets 
and especial Constituents of Christianity, or Rehgion in spirit 
and in truth. In right order I must have commenced with the 
Articles of the Trinity and the Apostacy, including the ques- 
tion respecting the Origin of Evil, and the Incarnation of the 
Word. And could I have followed this order, some difficul- 
ties that now press on me would have been obviated. But (as 
has already been explained ) the limits of the present Volume 
rendered it alike impracticable and inexpedient ; for the ne- 
cessity of my argument would have called forth certain hard, 
though most true sayings, respecting the hollowness and trick- 
sy sophistry of the so called " Natural Theology," " Religion 
of Nature," " Light of Nature," &c. which a brief exposition 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 157 

could not save from innocent misconceptions, much less pro- 
tect against plausible misinterpretation. And yet both Reason 
and Experience have convinced me, that in the greater num- 
ber of our Alogi, who feed on the husks of Christianity, the 
disbelief of the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ included, has 
its origin and support in the assumed self-evidence of this Na- 
tural Theology, and in their ignorance of the insurmountable 
difficulties which (on the same mode of reasoning) press upon 
the fundamental articles of their own Remnant of a Creed. 
But arguments, which would prove the falsehood of a known 
truth, must themselves be false, and can prove the falsehood of 
no other position in eodem genere. 

This hint I have thrown out as a Spark that may perhaps 
fall where it will kindle. The Reader desirous of more is 
again referred to the Work already announced. And worthi- 
ly might the wisest of men make inquisition into the three mo- 
mentous points here spoken of, for the purposes of speculative 
Insight, and for the formation of enlarged and systematic views 
of the destination of Man, and the dispensation of God. But 
the practical Inquirer (I speak not of those who inquire for 
the gratification of Curiosity, and still less of those who labour 
as students only to shine as disputants;, but of one, who seeks 
the truth, because he feels the want of it), the practical Inqui- 
rer, I say, hath already placed his foot on the rock, if he have 
satisfied himself that whoever needs not a Redeemer is more 
than human. Remove for him the difficulties and objections, 
that oppose or perplex his belief of a crucified Saviour ; con- 
vince him of the reality of Sin, which is impossible without a 
knowledge of its true nature and inevitable Consequences ; 
and then satisfy him as to the fact historically, and as to the 
truth spiritually, of a redemption therefrom by Christ ; do this 
for him, and there is little fear that he will permit either logi- 
cal quirks or metaphj^sical puzzles to contravene the plain dic- 
tate of his Common Sense, the Sinless One that redeemed 
Mankind from Sin, must have been more than Man ; and that 
He who brought Light and Immortality into the World, could 
not in his own nature have been an inheritor of Death and 



158 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Darkness. It is morally impossible, that a man with these con- 
victions should suffer the Objection of Incomprehensibility (and 
this on a subject of Faith) to overbalance the manifest absurd- 
ity and contradiction in the notion of a mediator between God 
and the Human Race, at the same infinite distance from God 
as the Race for whom he mediates. 

The Origin of Evil, meanwhile, is a question interesting 
only to the Metaphysician, and in a system of moral and reli- 
gious Philosophy. The man of sober mind, who seeks for 
truths that possess a moral and practical interest, is content to 
be certain^ first, that Evil must have had a beginning, since 
otherwise it must either be God, or a co-eternal and co-equal 
Rival of God ; both impious notions, and the latter foolish to 
boot. 2dly, That it could not originate in God ; for if so, it 
would be at once Evil and not Evil, or God would be at once 
God (that is, infinite Goodness) and not God — both alike im- 
possible positions. Instead therefore of troubling himself with 
this barren controversy, he more profitably turns his enquiries 
to that Evil which most concerns himself, and of which he 
may find the origin. 

The entire Scheme of necessary Faith may be reduced to 
two "heads, 1. the Object and Occasion, and 2. the fact and ef- 
fect, of our redemption by Christ : and to this view does the 
order of the following Comments correspond. I have begun 
with Original Sin, and proceeded in the following Aphorism 
to the doctrine of Redemption. The Comments on the re- 
maining Aphorisms are all subsidiary to these, or written in 
the hope of making the minor tenets of general belief be be- 
lieved in a spirit worthy of these. They are, in short, intend- 
ed to supply a febrifuge against aguish Scruples and Horrors, 
the hectic of the Soul ! and " for servile and thrall-like fear 
to substitute that adoptive and cheerful boldness, which our 
new alliance with God requires of us as Christians." (Mil- 
ton). Not the Origin of Evil, not the Chronology of Sin, 
or the chronicles of the original Sinner ; but Sin originant, un- 
derived from without, and no passive link in the adamantine 
chain of Effects, each of which is in its turn an instrument of 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 159 

Causation, but no one of them a Cause ! not with Sin inflict^ 
edj which would be a Calamity! not with Sin (i. e. an evil 
tendency ) implanted^ for which let the Planter be responsible ! 
But I begin with Original Sin. And for this purpose I have 
selected the Aphorism from the ablest and most formidable 
Antagonist of this Doctrine, Bishop Jeremy Taylor, and 
from the most eloquent work of this most eloquent of Divines. 
Had I said, of Men, the Soul of Cicero would forgive me, 
and Demosthenes nod assent [66]! 

APHORISM X. JEREMY TATLOa. 

ON ORIGINAL SIN. 

Is there any such thing ? That is not the question. For it 
is a Fact acknowledged on all hands almost : and even those 
who will not confess it in words, confess it in their complaints. 
For my part I connot but confess that to 6e, which I feel and 
groan nmder, and by which all the world is miserable. 

Adam turned his back on the Sun, and dwelt in the Dark 
and the Shadow. He sinned, and brought evil into his Super- 
natural endowments, and lost the Sacrament and instrument 
of Immortality, the Tree of Life in the centre of the Garden. 
He then fell under the evils of a sickly Body, and a passion- 
ate and ignorant Soul. His Sin made him sickly, his Sickness 
made him peevish : his Sin left him ignorant, his Ignorance 
made him foolish and unreasonable. His sin left him to his 
Nature : and by Nature, whoever was to be born at all was to 
be born a child, and to do before he could understand, and to 
be bred under laws to which he was always bound, but which 
could not always be exacted ; and he was to choose when he 
could not reason, and had passions most strong when he had 
his understanding most weak ; and the more need he had of a 
curb, the less strength he had to use it I And this being the 
case of all the world, what was every man's evil became all 
men's greater evil ; and though alone it was very bad, jet 
when they came together it was made much worse. Like 
ships in a storm, every one alone hath enough to do to outride 



160 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

it ; but when they meet, besides the evils of the Storm, they 
find the intolerable calamity of their mutual concussion ; and 
every Ship that is ready to be oppressed with the tempest, is 
a worse Tempest to every Vessel against which it is violently 
dashed. So it is in Mankind. Every man hath evil enough 
of his own, and it is hard for a man to live up to the rule of 
his own Reason and Conscience. But when he hath Parents 
and Children, Friends and Enemies, Buyers and Sellers, Law- 
yers and Clients, a Family and a Neighbourhood — then it is 
that every man dashes against another, and one relation re- 
quires what another denies ; and when one speaks another 
will contradict him ; and that which is well spoken is some- 
times innocently mistaken ; and that upon a good cause pro- 
duces an evil effect ; and by these and ten thousand other con- 
current causes, man is made more than most miserable. 

COMMENT. 

The first question we should put to ourselves, when we 
have read a passage that perplexes us in a work of authority, 
is : What does the Writer mean by all this ? And the second 
question should be. What does he intend by all this ? In the 
passage before us, Taylor's meaning is not quite clear. A Sin 
is an Evil which has its ground or origin in the Agent, and 
not in the compulsion of Circumstances. Circumstances are 
compulsory from the absence of a power to resist or control 
them : and if this absence likewise be the effect of circum- 
stance (t. e. if it have been neither directly nor indirectly 
caused by the Agent himself) the Evil derives from the Cir- 
cumstances ; and therefore (in the Apostle's sense of the 
word, Sin, when he speaks of the exceeding sinfulness of Sin J 
such evil is not sin ; and the person who suffers it, or who is 
the compelled instrument of its infliction on others, may feel 
regret but cannot feel remorse. So likewise of the word ori- 
gin, original, or originant. The reader cannot too early be 
warned that it is not applicable, and, without abuse of lan- 
guage, can never be applied, to a mere link in a chain of ef- 
fects, where each, indeed, stands in the relation of a cause to 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 1^1 

those that foUow, but is at the same time the effect of all that 
precede. For in these cases a cause amounts to httle more 
than an antecedent. At the utmost it means only a conductor 
of the causative influence : and the old axiom, Causa causae 
causa causati, applies, with a never-ending regress to each se- 
veral link, up the whole chain of nature. But this (as I have 
elsewhere shown at large) is Nature: and no Natural thing 
or act can be called originant, or be truly said to have an ori- 
5m[67] in anv other. The moment we assume an Origin in 
Nature, a true" Beginning, an actual First— that moment we 
rise above Nature, and are compelled to assume a supernatural 
Power. (Gen. I. V. 1.) 

It will be an equal convenience to myself and to my Read- 
ers, to let it be agreed between us, that we will generalize 
the' word Circumstance so as to understand by it, as often as it 
occurs in this Comment, all and every thing not connected 
with the Will, past or present, of a Free Agent. Even though 
it were the blood in the chambers of his Heart, or his own in- 
most Sensations, we will regard them as circumstantial, ex- 
trinsic, or from ivithout. 

In this sense of the word Original, and in the sense before 
given of Sin, it is evident that the phrase. Original Sin, is 
a Pleonasm, the epithet not adding to the thought, but only 
enforcing it. For if it be Sin, it must be original : and a State 
or Act, that has not its origin in the will, may be calamity, de- 
formity, disease, or mischief; but a Sin it cannot be. It is not 
enough that the Act appears voluntary; or that it is intention- 
al; or that it has the most hateful passions or debasing appetite 
for its proximate cause and accompaniment. All these may 
be found in a Mad-house, where neither law nor humani- 
ty peimit us to condemn the Actor of Sin. The Reason of 
Law declares the Maniac not a Free-Agent ; and the Verdict 
follows of course-Not guilty. Now Mania, as distinguished 
from Idiocy, Frenzy, Delirium, Hypochondria, and Derange- 
ment (the last term used specifically to express a suspension or 
disordered state of the Understanding or Adaptive Power) is 
the Occultation or Eclipse of Reason, as the Power of ul- 

21 



162 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

timate ends. The Maniac, it is well known, is often found 
clever and inventive in the selection and adaptation of means 
to his ends; but his eiids are madness. He has lost his Rea- 
son. For though Reason, in finite beings, is not the Will — 
or how could the will be opposed to^^he Reason? — yet it is 
the condition, the sine qua non ot a jPree-will. 

We will now return to the Extract from Jeremy Taylor on 
a theme of deep interest in itself, and trebly important from 
its bearings. For without just and distinct views respecting 
the Article of Original Sin, it is impossible to understand aright 
any one of the peculiar doctrines of Christianity. Now my 
first complaint is, that the eloquent Bishop, while he admits 
the fact as established beyond controversy by universal expe- 
rience, yet leaves us wholly in the dark as to the main point, 
supplies us with no answer to the principal question — why he 
names it Original Sin ? It cannot be said, We know v*^hat the 
Bishop means, and what matters the name ? for the nature of 
the fact, and in what light it should be regarded by us, depends 
on the nature of our answer to the question, whether Original 
Sin is or is not the right and proper designation. I can ima- 
gine the same quantum of Sufferings and yet if I had reason to 
regard them as symptoms of a commencing Change, as pains 
of growth, the temporary deformity and misproportions of im- 
maturity, or (as in the final sloughing of the Caterpillar) as 
tjiroes and struggles of the waxing or evolving Psyche, I 
should think it no stoical flight to doubt, how far I was 
authorised to declare the Circumstance an Evil at all. Most 
assuredly I would not express or describe the fact as an evil 
having an origin in the Sufi'erers themselves, or as Sin. 

Let us, however, waive this objection. Let it be supposed 
that the Bishop uses the word in a different and more compre- 
hensive Sense, and that by Sin he understands Evil of all kind 
connected with or resulting from Actions — though I do not 
see how we can represent the properties even of inanimate 
Bodies (of poisonous substance, for instance) except as Acts 
resulting from the constitution of such bodies ! Or if this sense, 
though not unknown to the IMystic Divines, should be too 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 163 

comprehensive and remote, we will suppose the Bishop to com- 
prise under the term Sin, the Evil accompanying or conse- 
quent on human Actions and Purposes : — though here too, I 
have a right to be informed, for what reason and on what 
grounds Sin is thus limited to human Agency ? And truly, I 
should be at no loss to assign the reason. But then this rea- 
son would instantly bring me back to my first definition ; and 
any other reason, than that the human Agent is endowed with 
Reason, and with a Will which can place itself either in sub- 
jection or in opposition to his Reason — in other words, that 
Man is alone of all known Animals a responsible Creature — 1 
neither know or can imagine. 

Thus, then, the Sense which Taylor — and with him the An- 
tagonists generally of this Article as propounded by the first 
Reformers — attaches to the words, Original Sin, needs only be 
carried on into its next consequence, and it will be found to 
imply the sense which 1 have given — namely, that Sin is Evil 
having an Origin. But inasmuch as it is evil^ in God it can- 
not originate : and yet in some Spirit {i. e. in some supernatu- 
ral power) it must. For in Nature there is no origin. Sin 
therefore is spiritual Evil : but thq spiritual in Man is the Will. 
Now when we do not refer to any particular Sins, but to that 
state and constitution of the Will, which is the ground, condi- 
tion and common Cause of all Sins ; and when we would fur- 
ther express the truth, that this corrupt Nature of the Will 
must in some sense or other be considered as its own act, that 
the corruption must have been self-originated ; — in this case 
and for this purpose we may, with no less propriety than force, 
entitle this dire spiritual evil and source of all evil, that is ab- 
solutely such, Original Sin. (1 have said, "the corrupt Na- 
ture of the Will." I might add, that the admission of a Na- 
ture into a spiritual essence by its own act is a corruption. ) 

Such, I repeat, would be the inevitable conclusion, if Tay- 
lor's Sense of the term were carried on into its immediate 
consequences. But the whole of his most eloquent Treatise 
makes it certain that Taylor did not carry it on : and conse- 
quently Original Sin, according to his conception, is a Calami- 



164 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

ty which bemg common to all men must be supposed to result 
iVom their common Nature : in other words, the universal Ca- 
lamity of Human Nature f 

Can we wonder, then, that a mind, a heart like Taylor's, 
should reject, that he should strain his faculties to explain 
away, the belief that this Calamity, so dire in itself, should ap- 
pear to the All-merciful God a rightful cause and motive for 
inflicting on the wretched Sufferers a Calamity infinitely more 
tremendous ? nay, that it should be incompatible with Divine 
Justice not to punish it by everlasting torment ? Or need we 
be surprised i( he found nothing, that could reconcile his mind 
to such a belief, in the circumstance that the acts now conse- 
quent on this Calamity and either directly or indirectly effects 
of the saine were, five or six thousand years ago in the instance 
of a certain Individual and his Accomplice, anterior to the Ca- 
lamity, and the Cause or Occasion of the same ? that what in 
all other men is Dlsease^'m these two persons was Guilt? that 
what in us is hereditary^ and consequently Nature^ in them 
was original^ and consequently Sin9 Lastly might it not be 
presumed, that so enlightened, and at the same time so affec- 
tionate, a Divine, would even fervently disclaim and reject the 
pretended justifications of God, grounded on flimsy analogies 
draAvn from the imperfections of human ordinances and human 
justice-courts — some of very doubtful character even as hu- 
man Institutes, and all of them just only as far as they are ne- 
cessary, and rendered necessary chiefly by the weakness and 
wickedness, the limited powers and corrupt passions, of man- 
kind ? The more confidently might this be presumed of so 
acute and practised a Logician, as Jeremy Taylor, in addition 
to his other extra-ordinary Gifts, is known to have been, when 
it is demonstrable that the most current of these justifications 
rests on a palpable equivocation : viz. the gross misuse of the 
word Right [68]. An instance will explain my meaning. In 
as far as, from the known frequency of dishonest or mischie- 
vous persons, it may have been found necessary^ in so far is the 
Law justifiable in giving Landowners the Right of proceeding 
against a neighbour or fellow-citizen for even a slight trespass 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 165 

on that which the Law has made their Property : — nay, of pro- 
ceeding in sundry instances criminally and even capitally. 
(Where at least from the known poverty of the Trespasser 
it is foreknown that the consequences will be penal. Thus : 
three poor men were fined Twenty Pounds each, the one for 
knocking down a Hare, the other for picking it up, and the third 
for carrying it oif : and not possessing as many Pence, were 
sent to Jail.) But surely, either there is no religion in the 
world, and nothing obligatory in the precepts of the Gospel, 
or there are occasions in which it would be very ivrong in the 
Proprietor to exercise the Rights which yet it may be highly 
expedient that he should possess. On this ground it is, that 
Religion is the sustaining Opposite of Law. 

That Jeremy Taylor, therefore, should have striven fervent- 
ly against the Article so interpreted and so vindicated, is (for 
me, at least,) a subject neither of Surprise nor of Complaint. 
It is the doctrine which he substitutes^ it is the weakness and 
inconsistency betrayed in the defence of this substitute, it is 
the unfairness with which he blackens the established Article — • 
for to give it, as it had been caricatured by a few Ultra -Cal- 
vinists during the fever of the (so called) quinquarticular 
Controversy, was in effect to blacken it — and then imposes 
another scheme, to which the same objections apply with even 
increased force, a scheme which seems to differ from the forr 
mer only by adding fraud and mockery to injustice : these are 
the things that excite my wonder, it is of these that I com- 
plain ! For what does the Bishop's scheme amount to ? God, 
he tells us, required of Adam a perfect obedience, and made 
it possible by endowing him " with perfect rectitudes and su- 
pernatural heights of grace" proportionate to the obedience 
which he required. As a consequence of his disobedience, 
Adam lost this rectitude, this perfect sanity and proper tionate- 
ness of his intellectual, moral and corporeal state, powers and 
impulses ; and as the penalty of his crime, he was deprived 
of all super-natural aids and graces. The Death, with what- 
ever is comprised in the scriptural sense of the word. Death, 
began from that moment to work in him, and this consequence 



106 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

h3 conveyed to his offspring, and through them to all his pos- 
terity, *. e. to all mankind. They were born diseased in mind, 
body and will. For what less than disease can we call a ne- 
cessity of error and a predisposition to sin and sickness ? Tay- 
lor, indeed, asocrts^ that though perfect Obedience became in- 
comparably more difficult, it was not, however, absolutely im- 
possible. Yet he himself admits that the contrary was uni- 
versal ; that of the countless millions of Adam's Posterity, 
not a single Individual ever realized, or approached to the re- 
alization of, this possibility; and (if my memory does not de- 
ceive me) Taylor himself has elsewhere exposed — and if he 
have not, yet Common Sense will do it for him — the sophistry in 
asserting of a whole what may be true, but is true only, of each 
of its component parts. Any one may snap a horsehair: there- 
fore, any one may perform the same feat with the horse's tail. 
On a level floor (on the hardened sand, for instance, of a sea- 
beach) I chalk two parallel strait lines, with a width of eight 
inches. It is possible for a man, with a bandage over his eyes, 
to keep within the path for two or three paces : therefore, it is 
possible for him to walk blindfold for two or three leagues 
without a single deviation ! And this possibility w ould suffice 
to acquit me of injustice^ though I had placed man-traps with- 
in an inch of one line, and knew that there were pit-falls and 
deep wells beside the other ! 

This assertion, therefore, without adverting to its discord- 
ance with, if not direct contradiction to, the tenth and thir- 
teenth Articles of our Church, I shall not, I trust, be thought 
to rate below its true value, if I treat it as an infinitesimal 
possibility that may be safely dropped in the calculation : and 
so proceed with the argument. The consequence then of 
Adam's Crime was by a natural necessity, inherited by Persons 
who could not (the Bishop affirms) in any sense have been 
accomplices in the crime or partakers in the guilt : and yet 
consistently with the divine Holiness, it was not possible that 
the same perfect Obedience should not be required of them. 
Now what would the Idea of Equity, what would the Law 
inscribed by the Creator in the heart of Man, seem to dictate 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 1 GT 

in this case ? Surely that the supplementary Aids, the super- 
natural Graces correspondent to a Law above Nature, should 
be increased in proportion to the diminished strength of the 
Agents, and the increased resistance to be overcome by them ! 
But no ! not only the consequence of Adam's act, but the pe- 
nalty due to his crime, was perpetuated. His descendants 
were despoiled or left destitute of these Aids and Graces, 
while the obligation to perfect obedience was continued ; an 
obligation too, the nonfulfilment of Avhich brought with it 
Death and the unutterable Woe that cleaves to an immortal 
Soul for ever alienated from its Creator I 

Observe, Reader ! all these results of Adam's Fall enter 
into Bishop Taylor's scheme of Original Sin equally as into 
that of the first Reformers. In this respect the Bishop's doc- 
trine is the same with that laid down in the Articles and Hom- 
ilies of the Established Church. The only diiTerence that has 
hitherto appeared, consists in the aforesaid mathematical pos- 
sibility of fulfilling the whole Law, which in the Bishop's 
scheme is aflSrmed to remain still in human Nature, or (as it is 
elsewhere expressed) in the Nature of the hbman Will [69]. 
But though it were possible to grant this existence of a power 
in all men, which in no one man was ever exemplified, and 
where the non-actualization of such power is, a priori, so cer- 
tain, that the belief or imagination of the contrary in any In- 
dividual is expressly given us by the Holy Spirit as a test, 
whereby it may be known that the truth is not in him ! as an 
infallible sign of imposture or self-delusion ! Though it were 
possible to grant this, which consistently with Scripture and 
the principles of reasoning which we apply in all other cases, 
it is not possible to grant ; and though it were possible like- 
wise to overlook the glaring sophistry of concluding, in rela- 
tion to a series of indeterminate length, that whoever can do 
any one, can therefore do all ; a conclusion, the futility of 
which must force itself on the common-sense of every man 

who understands the proposition ;— still the question will arise 

Why, and on what principle of equity, were the unoffending 
sentenced to be born with so fearful a disproportion of their 



16S AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

powers to their duties ? Why were they subjected to a 
Law", the fulfdment of which was all but impossible, yet the 
penalty on the failure tremendous ? Admit that for those 
who had never enjoyed a happier lot, it was no punish- 
ment to be made inhabit a ground which the Creator had 
cursed, and to have been born with a bod}^ prone to sickness, 
and a soul surrounded with temptation and having the worst 
temptation within itseli in its own tempfibility ! To have the 
duties of a Spirit with the wants and appetites of an Animal ! 
Yet on such imperfect Creatures, with means so scanty and 
impediments so numerous, to impose the same task-work that 
had been required of a Creature v/ith a pure and entire na- 
ture and provided with super-natural Aids — if this be not to 
inflict a penalty ! — Yet to be placed under a Law% the difficul- 
ty of obeying and the consequences of not obeying which are 
both infinite, and to have momently to struggle with this diffi- 
culty, and to live in momently hazard of these consequences — 
if this be no punishment! — words have no correspondence 
with thoughts, and thoughts are but shadows of each other, 
shadows that own no substance for their anti-type ! 

Of such an outrage on common-sense Taylor was incapable. 
He himself calls it a penalty ; he admits that in efl'ect it is a 
punishment : nor does he seek to suppress the question that 
so naturally arises out of this admission — On what principle of 
Equity were the irnocept offspring of Adam punished at all? 
He meets it, and puts-in an answer. He states the problem, 
and gives his solutio?i — namely, that " God on Adam's Account 
'was so exasperated loith Mafikind^ that being angry he would 
still continue the punishment!" The case (says the Bishop) 
is this: "Jonathan and Michal were Saul's Children. It came 
to pass, that seven of Saul's Issue were to be hanged : all 
equally innocent, equally culpable." [Before I quote fur- 
ther^ I feel myself called on to remind the Reader ^ that these 
two last words loere added by Jeremy Taylor without the least 
ground of Scripture^ according to which (2 Samuel, Ixxi.) no 
crime loas laid to their charge, no blame imjnited to them. 
Without any pretence of culpable conduct on their part, they 



APHORISMS ON SPIBIT0AI, SELICIOW. 169 

were arraigned as Children of Saul, and sacrificed to a point 
oj state-expedience. In recommencing the quotation, there- 
Jore,the Reader ought to let the sentence conclude with the 
^'ord^-] "all equally innocent. David took the five Sons 
of Michai, for she had left him unhandsomely. Jonathan was 
h,s fnend : and therefore he spared to Son, Mephibosheth. 
iNow here it was indifferent as to the guilt of the persons (hear 
%n mii^, Reader! that no guilt was attached to either of 
them!) whether David should take the Sons of Michai or Jo- 
nathan's ; but it is likely that as upon the kindness that David 
had to Jonathan he spared his son ; so upon the just provoca- 
tion of Michai, he made that evil fall upon them, which, it 
may be, they should not have suffered if their mother had 
been kind. Adam was to God as Michai. to David." C Tay- 
lor's Polem. Tracts, p. 711.) ' 
This Answer, this Solution, proceeding too from a Divine go 
pre-eminently gifted, and occurring ( with other passages not 
less starthng) in a vehement refutation of the received doctrine 
on the express ground of its opposition to the clearest concep- 
tions and best feelings of mankind-this it is, that surprises 
me ! It IS of this that I complain ! The Almighty Father ex- 
asperated with those, whom the Bishop has himself in the 
same treatise described as "innocent and most unfortunate"- 
he two things best fitted to conciliate love and pity! Or 
though they did not remain innocent, yet those whose aban- 
donment to ameie nature, while they were left amenable to a 
aw above nature, he afiirms to be the irresistible cause, that 
they one and all, did sin \ And this decree illustrated and 
justified by Its analogy to one of the worst actions of an im- 
perfect Mortal ! Let such of my Readers as possess the Vol- 
ume of Polemical Discourses, or the opportunity of consult- 
/"4 'i'? ^ thoughtful perusal to the pages from 869 to 893 
(Thtrd edrtwn enlarged, 1674;. I dare anticipate their con- 
currence with the judgment which 1 here transcribe from the 
blank space at the end of the Deus Justificatus in my own 
Copy ; and which, though twenty years have elapsed since it 
was written, I have never seen reason to recant or modify. 

32 ^ 



170 AIDS TO REFLECTION. * 

" This most eloquent Treatise may be compared to a Statue of 
Janus, with the one face, which we must suppose fronting the 
Calvinistic Tenet, entire and fresh, as from the Master's hand ; 
beaming with life and force, a witty scorn on the Lip, and a 
Brow at once bright and weighty with satisfying reason ! the 
other, looking toward the ' something to be put in its place^^ 
maimed, featureless, and weatherbitten into an almost vision- 
ary confusion and indistinctness." 

With these expositions I hasten to contrast the scriptural 
article respecting Original Sin, or the Corrupt and sinful Na- 
ture of the Human Will, and the belief which alone is requi- 
red of us, as Christians. And here the first thing to be con- 
sidered, and which will at once remove a world of error, is : 
that this is no Tenet first introduced or imposed by Christi- 
anity ; and which, should a man see reason to disclaim the 
authority of the Gospel, would no longer have any claim on 
his attention. It is no perplexity that a man may get rid of 
by ceasing to be a Christian, and which has no existence for 
a philosophic Deist. It is a Fact, afiirmed, indeed, in the 
Christian Scriptures alone with the force and frequency pro- 
portioned to its consummate importance ; but a fact acknowl- 
edged in every Religion that retains the least glimmering of 
the patriarchal faith in a God infinite yet personal ! A fact 
assumed or implied as the basis of every Religion, of which 
any relics remain of earlier date than the last and total Apos- 
tasy of the Pagan World, when the faith in the great I am, 
the Creator, was extinguished in the sensual polytheism, which 
is inevitably the final result of Pantheism or the Worship of 
Nature ; and the only form under which the Pantheistic 
Scheme — that, according to which the World is God, and the 
material universe itself the one only absolute Being — can ex- 
ist for a People, or become the Popular Creed. Thus in the 
most ancient Books of the Brahmins, the deep sense of this 
Fact, and the doctrines grounded on obscure traditions of the 
promised Remedy, are seen struggling, and now gleaming, 
now flashing, through the Mist of Pantheism, and producing 
the incongruities and gross contradictions of the Brahmin My- 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGIOIT. 171 

thology ; while in the rival Sect — in that most strange Phse- 
nomenon, the religious Atheism of the Buddheists ! with whom 
God is only universal Matter considered abstractedly from all 
particular forms — the fact is placed among the delusions natu- 
ral to man, which, together with other superstitions grounded 
on a supposed essential difference between Right and Wrong, 
the Sage is to decompose and precipitate from the menstruum 
of his more refined apprehensions ! Thus in denying the fact, 
they virtually acknowledge it. 

From the remote East turn to the mythology of Minor Asia, 
to the Descendants of Javan who dwelt in the tents of Shem, 
and possessed the Isles. Here again, and in the usual form of 
an historic Solution, we find the same Fact^ and as character- 
istic of the Human Race^ stated in that earliest and most ven- 
erable My thus (or symbolic Parable) of Prometheus — that 
truly wonderful Fable, in which the characters of the rebell- 
ious Spirit and of the Divine Friend of Mankind {esog 
(ptXav^P'^ifo?) are united in the same Person: and thus in the 
most striking manner noting the forced amalgamation of the 
Patriarchal Tradition with the incongruous Scheme of Pan- 
theism. This and the connected tale of lo, which is but the 
sequel of the Prometheus, stand alone in the Greek Mythol- 
ogy, in which elsewhere both Gods and Men are mere Pow- 
ers and Products of Nature. And most noticeable it is, that 
soon after the promulgation and spread of the Gospel had awa- 
kened the moral sense, and had opened the eyes even of its 
wiser Enemies to the necessity of providing some solution of 
this great problem of the Moral World, the beautiful parable 
of Cupid and Psyche was brought forward as a rival Fall of 
Man : and the fact of a moral corruption connatural with the 
human race was again recognized. In the assertion of Orig- 
inal Sin the Greek Mythology rose and set. 

But not only was the fact acknowledged of a Law in the 
Nature of Man resisting the Law of God. (And whatever is 
placed in active and direct Oppugnancy to the Good is, ipso 
facto, positive Evil.) It was likewise an acknowledged Mys- 
tery, and one which by the nature of the Subject must ever 



172 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

remain such — a problem, of which any other solution, than 
the statement of the Fact itself, was demonstrably impossible. 
That it is so, the least reflection will suffice to convince every 
man, who has previously satisfied himself that he is a responsi- 
ble Being. It follows necessarily from the postulate of a res- 
ponsible Will. Refuse to grant this, and I have not a word to say. 
Concede this, and you concede all. For this is the essential 
attribute of a Will, and contained in the very idea, that what- 
ever determines the Will acquires this power from a previous 
determination of the Will itself. The Will is ultimately self- 
determined, or it is no longer a Will under the Law of per- 
fect Freedom, but a Nature under the mechanism of Cause 
and Effect. And if by an act, to which it had determined 
itself, it has subjected itself to the determination of Nature 
(in the language of St. Paul, to the Law of the Flesh), it re- 
ceives a nature into itself, and so far it becomes a Nature : 
and this is a corruption of the Will and a corrupt Nature. It 
is also a Fall of Man, inasmuch as his Will is the condition of 
his Personality ; the ground and condition of the attribute 
which constitutes him Man. And the ground-work of Per- 
sonal Being is a capacity of acknowledging the Moral Law 
(the Law of the Spirit, the Law of Freedom, the Divine 
Will) as that which should, of itself, suffice to determine the 
Will to a free obedience of the Law, the Law working there- 
on by its own exceeding lawfulness. This, and this alone, is 
positive Good : good in itself, and independent of all relations. 
Whatever resists and, as a positive force, opposes this in the 
Will is therefore evil. But an Evil in the Will is an evil 
Will ; and as all moral Evil (i. e. all evil that is evil without 
reference to its contingent physical consequences) is of the 
Will, this evil Will must have its source in the Will. And 
thus we might go back from act to act, from evil to evil, ad 
infinitum without advancing a step. 

We call an Individual a bad Man, not because an action is 
contrary to the Law, but because it has led us to conclude 
from it some Principle opposed to the Law, some private Max- 
im or By-law in the Will contrary to the universal Law of 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 173 

right Reason in the Conscience, as the Ground of the action. 
But this evil Principle again must be grounded in some other 
Principle which has been made determinant of the Will by 
the Will's own self-determination. For if not, it must have 
its ground in some necessity of Nature, in some instinct or 
propensity imposed not acquired, another's work, notour own. 
Consequently, neither Act nor Principle could be imputed ; 
and relatively to the Agent, not original^ not Sin. 

Now let the grounds, on which the fact of an Evil inherent 
in the Will is affirmable in the instance of any one Man, be 
supposed equally applicable in every instance, and concerning 
all men : so that the fact is asserted of the Individual, not be- 
cause he has committed this or that crime, or because he 
has shown himself to be this or that Man, but simply because 
he is a Man. Let the evil be supposed such as to imply the 
impossibility of an Individual's referring to any particular time 
at which it might be conceived to have commenced, or to any 
period of his existence at which it was not existing. Let it 
be supposed, in short, that the subject stands in no relation 
whatever to time, can neither be called in time or out o/time ; 
but that all relations of Time are as alien and heterogeneous 
in this question, as the relations and attributes of Space (north 
or south, round or square, thick or thin ) are to our Affections 
and Moral Feelings. Let the reader suppose this, and he will 
have before him the precise import of the scriptural doctrine 
of Original Sin : or rather of the Fact acknowledged in all 
Ages, and recognized, but not originating, in the Christian 
Scriptures. 

In addition to this Memento it wdll be well to remind the 
Inquirer, that the stedfast conviction of the existence, per 
sonality, and moral attributes of God is pre-supposed in the 
acceptance of the Gospel, or required as its indispensable pre- 
liminary. It is taken for granted as a point which the Hearer 
had already decided for himself, a point finally settled and put 
at rest : not by the removal of all difficulties, or by any such 
increase of Insight as enabled him to meet every objection of 
the Epicurean or the Sceptic with a full and precise answer ; 



174 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

but because he had convinced himself that it was folly as well 
as presumption in so imperfect a Creature to expect it ; and 
because these diflGiculties and doubts disappeared at the beam, 
when tried against the weight and convictive power of the 
reasons in the other scale. It is, therefore, most unfair to at- 
tack Christianity, or any article which the Church has declar- 
ed a Christian Doctrine, by arguments, which, if vahd, are 
valid against all religion. Is there a Disputant who scorns a 
mere Postulate^ as the basis of any argument in support of the 
Faith ; who is too high-minded to beg his ground, and will take 
it by a strong hand ? Let him fight it out with the Atheists, 
or the Manichaeans ; but not stoop to pick up their arrows, and 
then run away to discharge them at Christianity or the 
Church ! 

The only true way is to state the doctrine, believed equally 
by Saul of Tarsus, "yet breathing out threatenings and slaugh- 
ter against" the Church of Christ, as by Paul the Apostle 
" fully preaching the Gospel of Christ." A moral Evil is an 
Evil that has its origin in a Will. An Evil common to all 
must have a ground common to alj. But the actual existence 
of moral evil we are bound in conscience to admit ; and that 
there is an evil common to all is a Fact ; and this Evil must 
therefore have a common ground". Now this evil ground can- 
not originate in the Divine Will : it must therefore be refer- 
red to the Will of Man. And this evil Ground we call Orig- 
inal Sin. It is a Mystery^ that is, a Fact, which we see, but 
cannot explain ; and the doctrine a truth which we apprehend 
but can neither comprehend nor communicate. And such by 
the quality of the Subject (viz. a responsible Will) it must be, 
if it be truth at all. 

A sick man, whose complaint was obscure as his sufferings 
were severe and notorious, was thus addressed by a humane 
Stranger : My poor Friend ! I find you dangerously ill, and 
on this account only, and having certain information of your 
being so, and that you have not wherewithal to pay for a phy- 
sician, I have come to you. Respecting your disease, indeed, 
1 can tell you nothing, that you are capable of understanding, 



APHORISM3 ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 175 

more than you know already, or can only be taught by reflec- 
tion on y^our own experience. But I have rendered the Dis- 
ease no longer irremediable. I have brought the remedy with 
me : and I now offer you the means of immediate relief, with 
the assurance of gradual convalescence, and a final perfect 
Cure ; nothing more being required on your part, but your 
best endeavors to follow the prescriptions I shall leave with 
you. It is, indeed, too probable, from the nature of your dis- 
ease, that you will occasionally neglect or transgress them. 
But even this has been calculated on in the plan of your cure, 
and the remedies provided, if only you are sincere and in 
right earnest with yourself, and have your heart in the work. 
Ask me not, how such a disease can be conceived possible ! 
Enough for the present that you know it to be real: and I 
come to cure the disease^ not to explain it. 

Now, what if the Patient or some of his Neighbors should 
charge this good Samaritan with having given rise to the mis- 
chievous notion of an inexplicable Disease, involving the hon- 
our of the King of the Country ? should inveigh against him 
as the Author and first Introducer of the Notion, though of 
the numerous medical works composed ages before his arrival, 
and by Physicians of the most venerable Authority, it was 
scarcely possible to open a single volume without finding some 
description of the Disease, or some lamentation of its malig- 
nant and epidemic character! And lastly, what if certain 
pretended Friends of this good Samaritan, in their zeal to vin- 
dicate him against this absurd charge, should assert that he was 
a perfect Stranger to this Disease, and boldly deny that he 
had ever said or done any thing connected with it^ or that im- 
plied its existence ? 

In this Apologue or imaginary Case, Reader ! you have the 
true bearings of Christianity on the fact and Doctrine of Ori- 
ginal Sin. The doctrine (that is, the confession of a known 
fact) Christianity has only in common with every Rehgion, 
and with every Philosophy, in which the reality of a respon- 
sible Will and the essential difference between Good and Evil 
were recognized. Peculiar to the Christian Religion are the 



176 AIDS TO RErLECTION. 

Remedy and ( for all purposes but those of a merely specula- 
tive Curiosity) the Solution ! By the annunciation of the Re- 
medy it affords all the solution that our moral interests re- 
quire ; and even in that which remains, and must remain, un- 
fathomable the Christian finds a new .motive to walk humbly 
with the Lord his God ! 

Should a professed Believer ask you whether that, which 
is the ground of responsible action in your will, could in any 
way be responsibly present in the Will of Adam ? Answer 
him in these words : Fow, Sir ! can no more demonstrate the 
Negative, than I can conceive the Affirmative. The Corrup- 
tion of my will may very warrantably be spoken of as a Con- 
sequence of Adam's Existence ; as a consequence, a link in 
the historic Chain of Instances, whereof Adam is the first. But 
that it is on account of Adam ; or that this evil principle was, 
a priori, inserted or infused into my Will by the Will of ano- 
ther — which is indeed a contradiction in terms, my Will in 
such case being no Will — this is nowhere asserted in Scrip- 
ture explicitly or by implication. It belongs to the very es- 
sence of the doctrine, that in respect of Original Sin every 
man is the adequate representative of all men. What won- 
der, then, that where no inward ground of preference existed, 
the choice should be determined by outward relations, and that 
the first in time should be taken as the Diagram ? Even in 
Genesis the word, Adam, is distinguished from a Proper Name 
by an Article before it. It is the Adam, so as to express the 
genus, not the Individual — or rather, perhaps, I should say, as 
tvell as the Individual. But that the word with its equivalent 
the old man, is used symbolically and universally by St. Paul, 
( 1 Cor. XV. 22. 45. Eph. iv. 22. Col. iii. 9. Rom. vi. 6. ) is 
too evident to need any proof. 

I conclude with this remark. The Doctrine of Original 
Sin concerns all men. But it concerns Christians in partic- 
ular no otherwise than by its connexion with the doctrine of 
Redemption ; and with the Divinity and Divine Humanity of 
the Redeemer as a corollary or necessary inference from both 
mysteries. Beware of Arguments against Christianity, 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 177 

THAT CANNOT STOP THERE, AND CONSEQUENTLY OUGHT NOT 

TO HAVE COMMENCED THERE. Something I might have added 
to the clearness of the preceding views, if the limits of the 
work had perraited me to clear away the several delusive and 
fanciful assertions respecting the state [70] of our First Pa- 
rents, their wisdom, science, and angelic Faculties, assertions 
without the slightest ground in Scripture ! Or if consistently 
with the wants and preparatory studies of those, for whose use 
the volume was especially intended, I could have entered into 
the momentous subject of a Spiritual Fall or Apostasy ante- 
cedent to the formation of Man — a belief, the scriptural 
grounds of which are few and of diverse interpretation, but 
which has been almost universal mi the Christian Church. 
Enough, however, has been - trust, for the Reader to 
see and (as far as the subjec able of being understood) 

to understand this long controverted Article in the sense, in 
which alone it is binding on his faith. Supposing him, there- 
fore, to know the meaning of original sin, and to have deci- 
ded for himself on the fact of its actual existence, as the an- 
tecedent ground and occasion of Christianity, we may now 
proceed to Christianity itself, as the Edifice raised on this 
ground, i. e. to the great Constituent Article of the Faith in 
Christ, as the Remedy of the Disease— the Doctrine of Re- 
demption. 

Butbefore we pioceed to this momentous doctrine, let me 
briefly remind the young and friendly Pupil, to whom I would 
still be supposed to address myself, that in the Aphorism to 
follow, the word Science is used in its strict and narrowest 
sense. By a Science I here mean any Chain of Truths that 
are either absolutely certain, or necessarily true for the human 
mind from the laws and constitution of the mind itself. In 
neither case is our conviction derived ; or capable of receiv- 
ing any addition, from outward Experience, or empirical da- 
ta— i. e. matter-of-fact given to us through the medium of our 
Senses— though these Data may have been the occasion, or 
may even be an indispensable condition, of our reflecting 
on the former and thereby becoming conscious o( the same. 

23 



178 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

On the other hand, a connected series of conclusions grounded 
on empirical Data, in contra-distinction from Science, I beg 
leave (no better term occurring) in this place and for this pur- 
pose, to denominate a Scheme. 

APHORISM XL EDITOR. 

In whatever age and country, it is the prevailing mind and 
character of the nation to regard the present life as subordi- 
nate to a Life to come, and to mark the present state, the 
World of their Senses, by signs, instruments and mementos of 
its connexion with a future state and a spiritual World ; where 
the Mysteries of Faith are brought within the hold of the peo- 
ple at large, not by being explained away in the vain hope of 
accommodating them to the average of their Understanding, 
but by being made the objects of Love by their combination 
with events and epochs of History, with national traditions, 
with the monuments and dedications of Ancestral faith and 
zeal, with memorial and symbolical observances, with the re- 
alizing influences of social devotion, and above all, by early 
and habitual association with Acts of the Will ; there Religion 
is. There, however obscured by the hay and straw of human 
Will-work, the foundation is safe ! In that country, and un- 
der the predominance of such Maxims, the national church is 
no mere St-Aie- Institute. It is the State itself in its intensest 
federal union ; yet at the same moment the Guardian and Rep- 
resentative of all personal individuality. For the Church is the 
Shrine of Morality : and in Morality alone the Citizen asserts 
and reclaims his personal independence, his integrity. Our 
outward Acts are efficient, and most often possible, only by co- 
alition. As an efficient power, the Agent is but a fraction of 
unity : he becomes an integer only in the recognition and per- 
formance of the Moral Law. Nevertheless it is most true 
(and a truth which cannot with safety be overlooked) that Mo- 
rality, as Morality, has no existence for a People. It is ei- 
ther absorbed and lost in the quicksands of Prudential Calcu- 
lus, or it is taken up and transfigured into the duties and Mys- 
teries of Religion. And no wonder : since Morality (inclu- 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 179 

ding the personal being, the I am, as its subject) is itself a 
Mystery, and the ground and suppositum of all other Myste- 
ries, relatively to Man. 

APHORISM XII. EDITOR. 

Schemes of conduct, grounded on calculations of Self-inter- 
est ; or on the average Consequences oT Actions, supposing 
them general ; form a branch of Political Eco;iomy, to which 
let all due honour be given. Their utility is not ihere ques- 
tioned. But however estimable within their own sphere such 
schemes, or any one of them in particular, may be, they do 
not belong to Moral Science, to which both in kind and pur- 
pose they are in all cases foreign^ and when substituted for 
it, hostile. Ethics, or the Science of Morality, does indeed 
ill no wise exclude the consideration of Actid7i ; but it con- 
templates the same in its originating spiritual Source^ without 
reference to Space or Time or Sensible existence. Whatev- 
er springs out of "the perfect Law of Freedom," which ex- 
ists only by its unity with the Will, inherence in the W^ord, 
and communion with the Spirit, of God — that (according to 
the Principles of Moral Science) is good — it is Light and 
Righteousness and very Truth. Whatever seeks to separate 
itself from the Divine Principle, and proceeds from a false 
centre in the Agent's particular Will, is evil — a work of da!rfe- 
ness and contradiction ! It is Sin and essential Falsehood. 
Not the outward Deed, constructive, destructive or neutral ; 
not the Deed as a possible Object of the Senses ; is the Ob- 
ject of Ethical Science. For this is no Compost, CoUectori- 
um or Inventory of Single Duties : nor does it seek in the 
" multitudinous Sea," in the predetermined waves, tidies aVirf 
currents of Nature that freedom, which is exclusively' an At- 
tribute of Spirit. Like all other pure Sciences, whatever^ it! 
enunciates, and whatever it concludes, it enunciates and c6i\- 
ciudes absolutely. Strictness is its essential Character : atid 
its first Proposition is, " Whosoever shall keep the wholfe law, 
and yet offend in one point, he rs guilty' of all." James ii: 
10. ) For as the Will' oi^ Sj^irit, the S6urce and Substahce of 



180 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Moral Good, is one, and all in every part : so must it be the 
Totality, the whole articulated Series of Single Acts, taken as 
Unity, that can alone, in the severity of Science, be recogni- 
zed as the proper Counterpart and adequate Representative 
of a good Will. Is it in this or that limb, or not rather in the 
whole body, the entire Organismus, that the Law of Life re- 
flects itself ? Much less then can the Law of the Spirit work 
in fragments. 

APHORISM XIIL EDITOR. 

Wherever there exists a permanent[71] Learned Class, 
having authority and possessing the respect and confidence of 
the Country ; and where the Science of Ethics is acknowl- 
edged and taught in this class as a regular part of a learned 
education to its future Members generally, but as the special 
study and indisj^ensable ground- work of such as are intended 
for Holy Orders ; — there the Article of Original Sin will be an 
Axiom of Faith in all Classes. Among the Learned an undis- 
puted truth, and with the People a fact, which no man imag- 
ines it possible to deny, the Doctrine, thus inwoven in the 
faith of all and co-eval with the consciousness of each, will 
for each and all possess a reality, subjective indeed, yet virtu- 
ally equivalent to that which we intuitively give to the Objects 
of our Senses. 

With the Learned this will be the case ; because the Arti- 
cle is the first — I had almost said, spontaneous — product of 
the Application of Moral Science to History, of which it is 
the Interpreter. A mystery in its own right, and by the ne- 
cessity and essential character of its Subject — (for the Will, 
like the Life, in every act and product pre-supposes itself, a 
Past always present, a Present that evermore resolves itself 
into a Past ! ) — the Doctrine of Original Sin gives to all the 
other Mysteries of Religion a common Basis, a connexion of 
dependency, an intelligibility of relation, and a total harmo- 
ny, that supersede extrinsic proof. There is here that same 
proof from unity of purpose, that same evidence of Symme- 
try, which in the contemplation of a human skeleton flash- 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL, RELIGION. 181 

ed conviction on the mind of Galen and kindled meditation 
into a hymn of praise. 

Meanwhile the People, not goaded into doubt by the les- 
sons and examples of their Teachers and Superiors ; not drawn 
away from the Fixed Stars of Heaven, the form and Magni- 
tude of which are the same for the naked eye of the Shep- 
herd as for tlie Telescope of the Sage — from the immediate 
truths, I mean, of Reason and Conscience to an exercise, they 
have not been trained to, of a Faculty which has been imper- 
fectly developed, on a subject not within the sphere of the 
Faculty nor in any way amenable to its judgment ; the Peo- 
ple will need no arguments to receive a doctrine confirmed 
Ijy their own experince from within and from without, and in- 
timately blended with the most venerable Traditions common 
to all races, and the traces of which linger in the latest Twi- 
light of Civilization. 

Among the revulsions consequent on the brute bewilder- 
ments of a godless Revolution, a great and active Zeal for the 
interests of Religion may be one. I dare not trust it, till I have 
seen what it is that gives Religion this interest, till I am satis- 
fied that they are not the interests of this World ; necessary 
and laudable interests, perhaps, but which may, I dare believe 
be secured as effectually and more suitably by the Prudence 
of this World, and by this World's powers and motives. At 
all events, I find nothing in the fashion of the day to deter me 
from adding, that the Reverse of the preceding — that where 
Religion is valued and patronized as a supplement of Law, or 
an Aid extraordinary of Police ; where Moral Science is ex- 
ploded as the mystic Jargon of Dark Ages ; where a lax Sys- 
tem of Consequences, by which every iniquity on earth may 
be (and how many have been?) denounced and defended with 
equal plausibility, is publicly and authoritatively taught as Mo- 
ral Philosophy ; where the Mysteries of Religion, and Truths 
supersensual, are either cut and squared for the comprehen- 
sion of the Understanding, " the faculty judging according to 
Sense" or desperately torn asunder from the Reason, nay, fa- 
natically opposed to it; lastly, where Private [72] Interpreta- 



182 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

tion is every thing and the Church nothing — there the Myste- 
ry of Original Sin will be either rejected, or evaded, or per- 
verted into the monstrous fiction of Hereditary Sin, Guilt in- 
herited ; in the Mystery of Redemption metaphors will be 
obtruded for the reality ; and in the mysterious Appurtenants 
and Symbols of Redemption (Regeneration, Grace, the Eu- 
charist, and Spiritual Communion) the realities will be evap- 
orated into metaphors. 

APHORISM XIV. LEIOHTOM 

As in great Maps or Pictures you will see the border deco- 
rated with meadows, fountains, flowers, &c. lepresented in it, 
but in the middle you have the main design ; so amongst the 
works of God is it with the fore-ordained Redemption of Man. 
All his other works in the world, all the beauty of the crea- 
tures, the succession of ages and the things that come to pass 
in them, are but as the border to this as the Mainpiece. But 
as a foolish unskilful beholder, not discerning the excellency 
of the principal piece in such maps or pictures, gazes only on 
the fair Border, and goes no farther — thus do the greatest part 
of us as to this great Work of God, the redemption of our 
personal Being, and the re-union of the Human with the Di- 
vine, by and through the Divine Humanity of the Incarnate 
Word. 

APHORISM XV. LUTHER. 

It is a hard matter, yea, an impossible thing for thy human 
strength, whosoever thou art (without God's assistance), at 
such a time when Moses setteth on thee with the Law ( see 
Aphorism XII.), when the holy Law written in thy heart ac- 
cuseth and condemneth thee, forcing thee to a comparison of 
thy heart therewith, and convicting thee of the incompatible- 
ness of thy Will and Nature with Heaven and Holiness and 
an immediate God — that then thou shouldest be able to be of 
such a mind as if no Law nor sin had ever been ! I say it is 
in a manner impossible that a human creature, when he feel- 
eth himself assaulted with trials and temptations, and the con- 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



183 



science hath to do with God, and the tempted man knoweth 
that the root of temptation is within him, should obtain such 
mastery over his thoughts as then to think no otherwise than 

that FROM EVERLASTING NOTHING HATH BEEN BUT ONLY AND 

ALONE Christ, altogether Grace and Deliverance ! 

COMMENT. 

In irrational Agents, viz. the Animals, the Will is hidden or 
absorbed in the Law. The Law is their Nature. In the ori- 
ginal purity'tof a rational Agent the uncorrupted Will is iden- 
tical with the Law. Nay, inasmuch as a Will perfectly iden- 
tical with the Law is one with the divine Will, we may say, 
that in the un fallen rational Agent the W^ill constitutes the 
Law. But it is evident that the holy and spiritual Power and 
Light, which by a prolepsis or anticipation we have named 
Law, is a grace, an inward perfection, and without the com- 
manding, binding and menacing character which belongs to a 
Law, acting as a Master or Sovereign distinct from, and exis- 
ting, as it were, externally for, the Agent who is bound to 
obey it. Now this is St. Paul's sense of the Word : and on 
this he grounds his whole reasoning. And hence too arises 
the obscurity and apparent paradoxy of several texts. That 
the Law is a Laiv for you ; that it acts on the Will not in it ; 
that it exercises an agency from loithout^ by fear and coer- 
cion ; proves the corruption of yoiir Will, and presupposes it. 
Sin in this sense came by the Law : for it has its essence, as 
Sin, in that counterposition of the Holy Principle to the Will, 
which occasions this Principle to be a Law. Exactly (as in 
all other points) consonant with the Pauline doctrine is the 
assertion of John, when speaking of the re-adoption of the 
redeemed to be Sons of God, and the consequent resumption 
(I had almost said, re-absorption) of the Law into the Will 
(vofxov TsXsjov 70V Tvis sXsj^jag, Jamc5 i. 25. Seepage 14) he 
says— For the Law was given by Moses; but Grace and 
Truth came by Jesus Christ. P. S. That by the Law St. Paul 
meant only the ceremonial Law is a notion, that could origi- 



184 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

nate only in utter inattention to the whole strain and gist of 
the Apostles' Argument. 

APHORISM XVI. LEIGHTON AlfD ED. 

Christ's Death was both voluntary and violent. There was 
external violence: and that was the accompaniment, or at 
most the occasion, of his Death. But there was internal will- 
ingness, the spiritual Will, the Will of the Spirit and this was 
the proper cause. By this Spirit I>e was restored from Death : 
neither indeed '* was it possible for him to be holden of it." 
(Acts ii. V. 24 — 27.). "Being put todeath in the flesh, but 
quickened by the Spirit," says St. Peter. But he is likewise 
declared elsewhere to have died by that same Spirit, which 
here in opposition to the violence is said to quicken him. Thus 
Hebrews ix. 14. Through the eternal Spirit he offered him- 
self. And even from Peter's words, and without the epithet, 
eternal, to aid the interpretation, it is evident that the Spirit, 
here opposed to the Flesh, Body or Animal Life, is of a high- 
er nature and powder than the individual Soul, which cannot 
of itself return to re-inhabit or quicken the Body. 

If these points were niceties, and an over-refining in doc- 
trine, is it to be believed that the Apostles, John, Peter and 
Paul, with the Author of the Ep. to the Hebrews, would have 
layed so great stress on them ? But the true Life of Chris- 
tians is to eye Christ in every step of his life — not only as 
their Rule but as their Strength ; looking to him as their Pat- 
tern both in doing and in suffering, and drawing power from 
him for going through both : being without him able for no- 
thing. Take comfort then, thou that behevest ! It is he that 
lifts up the Soul from the Gates of Death : and he hath said, 
/ will raise thee up at the last day. Thou that believest in 
him, believe him and take comfort. Yea, when thou art most 
sunk in thy sad apprehensions, and he far off to thy thinking 
then is he nearest to raise and comfort thee : as sometimes it 
grows darkest immediately before day. 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 185 

APHORISIVI XVII. L. AND EDITOR. 

Would any of you be cured of that common disease, the 
fear of Death ? Yet this is not the right name of the Disease, 
as a mere reference to our armies and navies is sufficient to 
prove : nor can the fear of death, either as loss of life or pain of 
dying, be justly held a common disease. But w^ould you be 
cured of the fear and fearful questionings connected with the 
approach of death ? Look this way, and you shall find more 
than you seek. Christ, the Word that was from the beginning, 
and was made flesh and dwelt among men, died. And he, 
who dying conquered death in his own person, conquered Sin, 
and Death which is the Wages of Sin, for thee. And of this 
thou mayest be assured, if only thou believe in him, and love 
him. I need not add, keep his commandments : since where 
Faith and Love are, Obedience in its threefold character, as 
Effect, Reward, and Criterion, follows by that moral necessity 
which is the highest form of freedom. The Grave is thy bed 
of rest, and no longer the cold bed : for thy Saviour has warm- 
ed it, and made it fragrant. 

If then it be health and comfort to the Faithful that Christ 
descended into the grave, with especial confic jnce may we 
meditate on his return from thence, quickened by the Spirit : 
this being to those who are in him the certain pledge, yea, the 
effectual cause of that blessed resurrection, for which they 
themselves hope. There is that union betwixt them and their 
Redeemer, that they shall rise by the communication and vir- 
tue of his rising : not simply by his power — for so the wicked 
likewise to their grief shall be raised ; but they by his life as 
their life, 

COMMENT 
ON THE THREE PRECEDING APHORISMS. 

To the Reader, who has consented to submit his mind to my 
temporary guidance, and who permits me to regard him as my 
Pupil or Junior Fellow-student, I continue to address myself. 
Should he exist only in my imagination, let the bread float on 

24 



186 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

the waters ! If it be the Bread of Life, it will not have been 
utterly cast away. 

Let us pause a moment, and review the road we have pass- 
ed over since the Transit from Religious Morality to Spiritual 
Religion. My first attempt was to satisfy you, that there is a 
Spiritual principle in Man (p. 87 — 93), and to expose the so- 
phistry of the arguments in support of the Contrary. Our 
next step was to clear the road of all Counterfeits, by showing 
what is not the Spirit, what is not Spiritual Religion (p. 97 — 
101 ). And this was followed by an attempt to establish a dif- 
ference in kind between religious truths and the deductions of 
speculative science ; yet so as to prove, that the former are not 
only equally rational with the latter, but that they alone appeal 
to Reason in the fulness and living reality of the Power. This 
and the state of mind requisite for the formation of right con- 
victions respecting spiritual Truths, employed our attention 
from p. 108 — 126. Having then enumerated the Articles of 
the Christian Faith peculiar to Christianity, I entered on the 
great object of the present work : viz. the removal of all valid 
Objections to these articles on grounds of right Reason or 
Conscience. But to render this practicable it was necessary,, 
first, to present each Article in its true scriptural purity, by 
exposure of the caricatures of misinterpreters ; and this, again^ 
could not be satisfactorily done till we were agreed respecting 
the Faculty, entitled to sit in judgment on such questions. I 
early foresaw, tkat my best chance (I will not say, of giving 
an insight into the surpassing worth and transcendent reason- 
ableness of the Christian Scheme ; but) of rendering the very 
question intelligible depended on my success in determining; 
the true nature and limits of the human Understanding, and 
in evincing its diversity from Reason. In piirsuing this mo- 
mentous subject, I was tempted in two or three instances into- 
disquisitions, that if not beyond the comprehension, were jet 
unsuited to the taste, of the persons for whom the Work was 
principally intended. These, however, I have separated from 
the running text, and compressed into Notes. The Reader 
will at worst, I hope, pass them by as a leaf or two of waste 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 187 

paper, willingly given by him to those, for whom it may not 
be paper lOdsted. Nevertheless, I cannot conceal, that the 
subject itself supposes, on the part of the Reader, a steadinesfl 
in self -questioning^ a pleasure in referring to his own inward 
experience for the facts asserted by the Author, that can only 
be expected from a person who has fairly set his heart on arri- 
ving at clear and fixed conclusions in matters of Faith, But 
where this interest is felt, nothing more than a common Capa- 
city, with the ordinary advantages of education, is required for 
the complete comprehension both of the argument and the re- 
sult. Let but one thoughtful hour be devoted to the pages 
135 — 146. In all that follows, the Reader will find no difficul- 
ty in understanding the Author's meaning, whatever he may 
have in adojyting it. 

The two great moments of the Christian Religion are. Ori- 
ginal Sin and Redemption ; that the Ground, this the Super- 
structure of our faith. The former I have exhibited, first, 
according to the scheme of the Westminster Divines and the 
Synod of Dorp ; then, according to the [73] scheme of a con- 
temporary Arminian Divine ; and lastly, in contrast with both 
schemes, I have placed what I firmly believe to be the Scrip- 
tural Sense of this Article, and vindicated its entire conformity 
with Reason and Experience. I now proceed to the other mo- 
mentous Article — from the necessitating Occasion of the Chris- 
tian Dispensation to Christianity itself ! For Christianity and 
Redemption are equivalent terms. And here my Comment 
will be comprised in a few sentences : for I confine my views 
to the one object of clearing this aw^ful mystery from those too 
current misrepresentations of its nature and import, that have 
laid it open to scruples and objections, not to such as shoot 
forth from an unbelieving heart — (against these a sick-bed will 
be a more effectual Antidote than all the Argument in the 
world ! ) but to such scruples as have their birth-place in the 
Reason and Moral Sense. Not that it is a Myster}^ — not that 
" it passeth all Understanding ! If the doctrine be more than 
an hyperbolical phrase, it must do so. But that it is at vari- 
ance with the Law revealed in the Conscience, that it contra- 



188 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

diets our moral instincts and intuitions — this is the difficulty, 
which alone is worthy of an answer ! And what better way 
is there of correcting the misconceptions than by laying open 
the source and occasion of them ? What surer way of remo- 
ving the scruples and prejudices, to which these misconcep- 
tions have given rise, than by propounding the Mystery itself — 
namely, the Redemtive Act, as the transcendent Cause of 
Salvation — in the express and definite words, in which it was 
enunciated by the Redeemer himself ? 

But here in addition to the three Aphorisms preceding, I in- 
terpose a view of redemption as appropriated by faith, coinci- 
dent with Leighton's though for the greater part expressed in 
my own words. This I propose as the right view. Then 
follow a few sentences transcribed from Field (an excellent 
Divine of James the First's reign, of whose work, entitled the 
Church it would be difficult to speak too highly) containing the 
question to be solved, and which is numbered as an Aphorism, 
rather to preserve the uniformity of appearance, than as being 
strictly such. Then follows the Comment : as a part and com- 
mencement of which the Reader will consider the two para- 
graphs of p. 133 — 135, written for this purpose and in the fore- 
sight of the present inquiry : and I entreat him therefore to 
begin the Comment by reperusing these. 

APHORISM XVIII. 

Stedfast by Faith. This is absolutely necessary for resis- 
tance to the Evil Principle. There is no standing out with- 
out some firm ground to stand on : and this Faith alone sup- 
plies. By Faith in the Love of Christ the power of God be- 
comes ours. When the Soul is beleaguered by enemies, 
Weakness on the Walls, Treachery at the Gates, and Cor- 
ruption in the Citadel, then by faith she says — Lamb of God, 
slain from the foundation of the World ! thou art my Strength ! 
I look to thee for deliverance ! And thus she overcomes. The 
pollution (miasma) of Sin is precipitated by his Blood, the 
power of Sin is conquered by his Spirit. The Apostle says 
not — stedfast by your own iTSolutions and purposes ; but sted- 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 189 

/ast by faith. Nor yet stedfast in your Will, but stedfast in 
the faith. We are not to be looking to, or brooding over our- 
selves, either for accusation or for confidence, or by a deep 
yet too frequent self-delusion) to obtain the latter by making 
a merit to ourselves of the former. But we are to look to 
Christ and "him crucified." The Law " that is very nigh 
to thee, even in thy heart ;" the Law that condemneth and 
hath no promise ; that stoppeth the guilty Past in its swift 
flight, and maketh it disown its name ; the Law will accuse 
thee enough. Linger not in the Justice-court, listening to thy 
indictment ! Loiter not in waiting to hear the Sentence ! No ! 
Anticipate the verdict ! Appeal to Ccesar ! Haste to the King 
for a Pardon ! Struggle thitherward, though in fetters : and 
cry aloud, and collect the whole remaining strength of thy 
Will in the outcry — I believe ! Lord ! help my unbeHef ! Dis- 
claim all right of property in thy fetters I Say, that they be- 
long to the Old Man, and that thou dost but carry them to 
the Grave, to be buried with their owner ! Fix thy thought 
on what Christ did, what Christ suffered, what Christ is — as 
if thou wouldst fill the hollowness of thy Soul with Christ ! 
If he emptied himself of Glory to become Sin for thy Salva- 
tion, must not thou be emptied of thy sinful Self to become 
Righteousness in and through his agony and the effective mer- 
its of his Cioss? By what other means, in what other form, 
is it possible for thee to stand in the presence of the Holy One ? 
With what mind wouldst thou come before God, if not with 
the Mind of Him, in whom alone God loveth the World ? 
With good advice, perhaps, and a little assistance, thou wouldst 
rather cleanse and patch up a mind of thy own, and offer it as 
thy admission-right, thy qualification, to him who " charged 
his angels with folly !" Oh take counsel of thy Reason ! It 
will show thee how impossible it is, that even a World should 
merit the love of Eternal Wisdom and all-sufficing Beatitude, 
otherwise than as it is contained in that all-perfect Idea, in 
which the Supreme Mind contemplate th itself and the pleni- 
tude of its infinity — the only-begotten before all ages ! the be- 
loved Son in whom the Father is indeed well pleased ! 



190 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

And as the Mind, so the Body with which it is to be clo- 
thed ! as the Indweller, so the House in which is to be the 
Abiding-place [74] ! There is but one Wedding-garment, in 
which we can sit down at the marriage-feast of Heaven : and 
that is the Bride-groom's own Gift, when he gave himself 
for us that we might live in him and he in us. There is but 
one robe of Righteousness, even the Spiritual Body, formed 
by the assimilative power of faith for whoever eateth the flesh 
of the Son of Man and drinketh his Blood. Did Christ come 
from Heaven, did the Son of God leave the Glory which he 
had with his Father before the World began, only to show us 
a way to life, to teach truths, to tell us of a resurrection ? Or 
saith he not, I am the way, I am the tiuth, I am the Resur- 
rection and the Life ! 

APHORISM XIX. FIELD. 

The Romanists teach that sins committed after baptism (i. 
e. for the immense majority of Christians having Christian Pa- 
rents, all their sins from the Cradle to the Grave ) are not so 
remitted for Christ's sake, but that we miist suffer that extrem- 
ity of punishment which they deserve : and therefore either 
we must afflict ourselves in such sort and degree of extremity 
as may answer the demerit of our Sins, or be punished by God 
here or in the World to come, in such degree and sort that his 
Justice may be satisfied. [N. B, As the encysted venom, or 
poison-hag, beneath the Adder^s fang, so does this doctrine 
lie beneath the tremendous power of the Romish Hierarchy. 
The demoralizing influence of this dogma, and that it curdled 
the very life-blood in the veins of Christendom, it was given to 
Luther beyond all men since Paul to see, feel, and promul- 
gate. And yet in his large Treatise on Repentance, how near 
to the spirit of this doctrine — even to the very walls and gates 
of Babylon — ivas Jeremy Taylor driven in recoiling from, the 
fanatical extremes of the opposite error.] But they, that 
are orthodox, teach that it is injustice to require the payment 
of one debt twice. * * * It is no less absurd to say, as the 
Papists do, that our satisfaction is required as a condition, 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 191 

without which Christ'^s satisfaction is not applicable unto us, 
than to say, Peter hath paid the debt of John, and He, to 
whom it was due, accepteth of the same payment on the con- 
dition that John pay it himself also. * * * The satisfaction of 
Christ is communicated and applied unto us without suffering 
the punishment that sin deserveth, [and essentially involveth^ 
Ed.] upon the condition of our Faith and Repentance. [To 
which the Editor would add : Without faith there is no power 
of repentance : without a commencing repentance no power 
to faith ; and that it is in the power of the will either to re- 
pent or to have faith, in the Gospel Sense of the words, is 
itself a Consequence of the Redemption of Mankind, a free 
gift of the Redeemer : the guilt of its rejection, the refusing 
to avail ourselves of the power, being all that we can consid- 
er as exclusively attributable to our own act. ] Field's Church, 
p. 68. 

COMMENT 

(cONTAININa AN APPLICATION OF- THE PRINCIPLES LAID DOWN IN 
PAGE 135—136.) 

Forgiveness of Sin, the Abolition of Guilt, through the re- 
demptive power of Christ's Love, and of his perfect Obedi- 
ence during his voluntary assumption of Humanity, is expres- 
sed, on account of the resemblance of the Consequences in 
both cases, by the payment of a debt for another, which Debt 
the Payer had not himself incurred. Now the imjoropriation 
of this Metaphor — (i. e. the taking it literally )hy tiansferring 
the sameness from the Consequents to the Antecedents, or 
infen'ing the identity of the causes from a resemblance in the 
effects — this is the point on which I am at issue : and the view 
or scheme of Redemption grounded on this coisfusion I be- 
lieve to be altogether unscriptural. 

Indeed, I know not in what other instance I could better 
exemplify the species of sophistry noticed in p. 141 — 142, as 
the Aristotelean fxera/Sao'j^ si^ aXXo ^svog, or clandestine passing; 
over into a diverse kind. The purpose of a Metaphor is to 
illustrate a something, less known by a partial identification of 



192 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

it with some other thing better understood, or at least more 
familiar. Now the article of Redemption may be considered 
in a twofold relation — in relation to the Antecedent, i. e, the 
Redeemer's Act, as the efficient cause and condition of Re- 
demption ; and in relation to the Consequent, i. e, the effects 
in and for the Redeemed. Now it is the latter relation, in 
which the Subject is treated of, set forth, expanded, and en- 
forced by St. Paul. The Mysterious Act, the Operative cause 
is t7'anscendent[l 5] — Factum est: and beyond the informa- 
tion contained in the enunciation of the Fact, it can be char- 
acterized only by the Consequences. It is the Consequences 
of the Act of Redemption, that the zealous Apostle would 
bring home to the minds and affections both of Jews and Gen- 
tiles. Now the Apostle's Opponents and Gainsayers were 
principally of the former class. They were Jews : not only 
Jews unconverted, but such as had partially received the Gos- 
pel, and who sheltering their national prejudices under the 
pretended authority of Christ's Original Apostles and the 
Church in Jerusalem, set themselves up against Paul as Fol- 
lowers of Cephas. Add too, that Paul himself was " a He- 
brew of the Hebrews ;" intimately versed " in the Jew's re- 
ligion above many, his equals, in his own nation, and above 
measure zealous of the traditions of his fathers." It might, 
therefore, have been anticipated, that his reasoning would re- 
ceive its outward forms and language, that it would take its 
predominant colours, from his own past, and his Opponents' 
present, habits of thinking ; and that his figures, images, anal- 
ogies, and references would be taken preferably from objects, 
opinions, events, and ritual observances ever uppermost in the 
imaginations of his own countrymen. And such we find them : 
yet so judiciously selected, that the prominent forms, the fig- 
ures of most frequent recurrence, are drawn from points of 
belief and practice, from laws, rites and customs, that then 
prevailed through the whole Roman World, and were common 
to Jew and Gentile. 

Now it would be difficult if not impossible to select points 
better suited to this purpose, as being equally familiar to all 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 193 

and yet having a special interest for the Jewish Converts, than 
those are from which the learned Apostle has drawn the four 
principal Metaphors, by which he illustrates the blessed Con- 
sequences of Christ's Redemption of Mankind. These are : 1 
Sin-offerings, sacrificial expiation. 2. Reconciliation, Atone- 
ment, KaTaXXa77][76]. 3. Ransom from slavery, Redemption, 
the buying back again, or being bought back, from re and emo. 
4. Satisfaction of a Creditor's claims by a payment of the debt. 
To one or other of these four heads all the numerous forms 
and exponents of Christ's Mediation in St. Paul's writings may 
be referred. And the very number and variety of the words 
or periphrases used by him to express one and the same thing 
furnish the strongest presumptive proof, that all alike were 
used metaphorically. [In the following notation, let the small 
letters represent the effects or consequences, and the Capitals 
the efficient causes or antecedents. Whether by Causes we 
mean Acts or Agents, is indifferent. Now let X signify a 
Transcendent, i. e. a Cause beyond our Comprehension and 
not within the sphere of sensible experience : and on the oth- 
er hand, let A. B. C. and D represent, each some one known 
and familiar cause in reference to some single and characteris- 
tic effect: viz. A in reference to k, B to 1, C to m, and D to 
n. Then I say X-|-k 1 m n is in different places expressed by 
(or as r=) A+k; B+1; C+m; D+n. And these I should 
call metaphorical Exponents of X.] 

Now John, the beloved Disciple, who leant on the Lord's 
Bosom, the Evangelist xwra -n-vfufxa i. e. according to the Spir- 
it, the inner and substantial truth of the Christian Creed — 
John, recording the Redeemer's own words, enunciates the 
Fact itself, to the full extent in which it is enunciable for the 
human mind, simply and without any metaphor, by identifying 
it in kind with a fact of hourly occurrence — expressing it, 1 
say, by a familiar fact the same in kind with that intended, 
though of a far lower dignity ; — by a fact of every man's ex- 
perience, known, to all, yet not better understood than the 
fact described by it. In the Redeemed it is a re-generation a 
birth, a spiritual seed impregnated and evolted, the germinal 

23 



194 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

principle of a higher and enduring Lifq, of a Spiritual Life — 
that is, a Life, the actuality of which is not dependent on the 
material body, or limited by the circumstances and processes 
indispensable to its organization and subsistence. Briefly, it 
is the Differential of Immortality, of which the assimilative 
power of Faith and Love is the Integrant, and the Life in 
Christ the Integration, 

But even this would be an imperfect statement, if we omit- 
ted the awful truth, that besides that dissolution of our earthly 
tabernacle which we call death, there is another death, not the 
mere negation of life, but its positive Opposite. And as there 
is a mystery of Life and an assimilation to the Principle of 
Life, even to him who is the Life ; so is there a mystery of 
Death and an assimilation to the Principle of Evil onx(pi'^akri^ 
SavttTw ! a fructifying of the corrupt seed, of which Death is the 
germination. Thus the regeneration to spiritual life is at the 
same time a redemption from the spiritual death. 

Respecting the redemptive act itself, and the Divine Agent, 
we know from revelation that he "was made a quickening 
( ^cjo'B'ojouv, life-making) Spirit:" and that in order to this it 
was necessary, that God should b© manifested in the flesh, that 
the eternal Word, through whom and by whom the World 
(xotfiuLog, the Order, Beauty, and sustaining Law of visible na- 
tures) was and is, should be made flesh, assume our humanity 
personally, fulfil all righteousness, and so suffer and so die for 
us as in dying to conquer Death for as many as should receive 
him. More than this, the mode, the possibility, we are not 
competent to know. It is, as hath been already observed con- 
cerning the primal Act of Apostasy, a mystery by the necessi- 
ty of the subject — a mystery, which at all events it will be time 
enough for us to seek and expect to understand, when we un- 
derstand the mystery of our Natural life, and its conjunction 
with mind and will and personal identity. Even the truths, 
that are given to us to know, we can know only through faith 
in the spirit. They are spiritual things that must be spiritual- 
ly discerned. Such, however, being the means and the effects 
of our Redemption, well might the fervent Apostle associate it 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 195 

with whatever was eminently dear and precious to ening and 
afflicted Mortals, and (where no expression could be commen- 
surate, no single title be other than imperfect) seek from simili- 
tude of effect to describe the superlative boon by successively 
transferring to it, as by a superior claim, the name of each sev- 
eral Act and Ordinance, habitually connected in the minds of 
all his Hearers with feelings of joy, confidence, and gratitude. 

Do you rejoice when the Atonement made by the Priest 
has removed the civil stain from your name, restored you to 
your privileges as a Son of Abraham, and replaced you in the 
respect of your Brethren ? — Here is an atonement which takes 
away a deeper, worser stain, an eating Canker-spot in the 
very heart of your personal Being! This, to as many as re- 
ceive it, gives the privilege to become the Sons of God (John 
i. 12), this will admit you to the society of Angels, and ensure 
you the rights of Brotherhood with Spirits made perfect! 
(Heb. xii. 22.) Here is a Sacrifice, a Sin-offering for the 
whole world : and an High Priest, who is indeed a Mediator, 
who not in type or shadow but in very truth and in his own 
right stands in the place of Man to God, and of God to Man ; 
and who receives as a Judge what he offered as an Advocate. 

Would you be grateful to one who had ransomed you from 
slavery under a bitter foe, or who brought you out of Captivi- 
ty? Here is redemption from a far direr slavery, the slavery 
of Sin unto Death ! and he, who gave himself for the ransom, 
has taken Captivity Captive ! 

Had you by your own fault alienated yourself from your 
best, your only sure friend ? Had you, like a Prodigal cast 
yourself out of your Father's House ? Would you not love 
the good Samaritan, who should reconcile you to your Friend ? 
Would you not prize above all price the intercession, that had 
brought you back from Husks and the tending of Swine, and 
restored you to your Father's Arras, and seated you at your 
Father's Table ? 

Had you involved yourself in a heavy debt for certain gew- 
gaws, for high-seasoned meats, and intoxicating drinks, and 
glistening apparel, and in default of payment had made your- 



196 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

self over as a bondsman to a hard Creditor, who, it was fore- 
known, would enforce the bond of Judgment to the last tittle 1 
With what emotions would you not receive the glad tidings, 
that a stranger, or a friend whom in the days of your wanton- 
ness you had neglected and reviled, had paid the debt for 
you, had made satisfaction to your Creditor ? But you have 
incurred a debt of Death to the Evil Nature ! you have sold 
yourself over to Sin ! and relatively to you^ and to all your 
means and resources, the Seal on the Bond is the Seal of Ne- 
cessity ! Its stamp is the Nature of Evil. But the Stranger 
has appeared, the forgiving Friend has come, even the Son of 
God from heaven: and to as many as have faith in his name, 
I say — The Debt is paid for you ! the Satisfaction has been 
made. 

Now to simplify the argument and at the same time to bring 
the question to the test, we will confine our attention to the fig- 
ure last mentioned, viz. the satisfaction of a Debt. Passing by 
our modern Alogi who find nothing but metaphors in either 
Apostle, l^t us suppose for a moment with certain Divines that 
our Lord's Words, recorded by John, and which in all places 
repeat and assert the same Analogy, are to be regarded as 
metaphorical ; and that it is the varied expressions of St. Paul 
that are to be literally interpreted : ex. gr. that Sin is, or in- 
volves an infinite Debt, ( in the proper and law-court sense of 
the word, debt) — -a debt owing by us to the vindictive Justice 
of God the Father, which can only be liquidated by the ever- 
lasting misery of Adam and all his posterity, or by a sum of 
suffering equal to this. Likewise, that God the Father by his 
absolute decree, or (as some Divines teach) through the ne- 
cessity of his unchangeable Justice, had determined to exact 
the full sum ; which must, therefore, be paid either by our- 
selves, or by some other in our name and behalf. But besides 
the Debt which all Mankind contracted in and through Adam, 
as a Homo Publicus, even as a Nation is bound by the Acts of 
its Head or its Plenipotentiary, every man ( say these Divines ) 
is an insolvent Debtor on his own score. In this fearful pre- 
dicament the Son of God fook compassion on Mankind, and re- 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 1 9T 

solved to pay the debt for us, and to satisfy the divine Justice 
by a perfect equivalent. Accordingly, by a strange yet strict 
consequence^ it has been held by more than one of these Di- 
vines, that the agonies suffered by Christ were equal in 
amount to the sum total of the torments of all Mankind here 
and hereafter, or to the infinite debt, which in an endless suc- 
cession of instalments we should have been paying to the di- 
vine Justice, had it not been paid in full by the Son of God 
incarnate ! 

It is easy to say — O but / do not hold this, or we do not 
make this an article of our belief! The true question is : Do 
you take any part of it : and can you reject the rest without 
being inconsequent 9 Are Debt, Satisfaction, Payment in full, 
Creditors' Rights, &c. nomina propria, by which the very 
nature of Redemption and its occasion is expressed ? or are 
they, with several others, figures of speech for the purpose 
of illustrating the nature and extent of the consequences 
and effects of the redemptive A.ct, and to excite in the receiv- 
ers a due sense of the magnitude and manifold operation of the 
Boon, and of the Love and gratitude due to the Redeemer ? 
If still you reply, the former : then, as your whole theory is 
grounded on a notion of Justice, I ask you — Is this Justice a 
moral Attribute ? But Morality commences with, and begins 
in, the sacred distinction between Thing and Person : on this 
distinction all Law human and divine is grounded : conse- 
quently, the Law of Justice. If you attach any idea to the 
term^ustice, as applied to God, it must be the same which you 
refer to when you affirm or deny it of any other personal 
Agent — save only, that in its attribution to God, you speak of 
it as unmixed and perfect. For if not, what do you mean ? 
And why do you call it by the same name ? I may, therefore, 
with all right and reason, put the case as between man and 
man. For should it be found irreconcileable with the Justice, 
which the Light of Reason, made Law in the Conscience, dic- 
tates to Man, how much more must it be incongruous with the 
all-perfect Justice of God ? — Whatever case I should imagine 
would be felt by the Reader as below the dignity of the sub- 



198 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

ject, and in some measure jarring with his feelings : and in 
other respects the more familiar the case, the better suited to 
the present purpose. 

A sum of j£ 1000 is owing from James to Peter, for which 
James had given a Bond in Judgment. He is insolvent, and 
the Bond is on the point of being carried into effect, to James's 
utter ruin. At this moment Matthew steps in, pays Peter the 
thousand pounds and discharges the Bond. In this case, no 
man would hesitate to admit, that a complete satisfaction had 
been made to Peter. Matthew's £ 1000 is a perfect equiva- 
lent of the sum James was bound to have paid, and for the sum 
which Peter had lent. It is the same thing : and this altogeth- 
er a question of Things. Now instead of James being indebted 
te Peter for a sum of money, which (he having become insol- 
vent) Matthew pays for him, we will put the case, that James 
had been guilty of the basest and most hard-hearted ingrati- 
tude to a most worthy and affectionate Mother, who had not 
only performed all the duties and tender offices of a mother, 
but whose whole heart was bound up in this her only child — 
who had foregone all the pleasures and amusements of life in 
watching over his sickly childhood, had sacrificed her health 
and the far greater part of her resources to rescue him from 
the consequences of his follies and excesses during his youth 
and early manhood ; and to procure for him the means of his 
present Rank and Affluence — all which he had repaid by 
neglect, desertion, and open profligacy. Here the Mother 
stands in the relation of the creditor : and here too we will 
suppose the same generous Friend to interfere, and to perform 
with the greatest tenderness and constancy all those duties 
of a grateful and affectionate Son, which James ought to have 
performed. Will this satisfy the Mother's claims on James, 
or entitle him to her Esteem, Approbation and Blessing ? Or 
what if Matthew, the vicarious Son, should at length address 
her in words to this purpose : " Now, I trust, you are appeas- 
ed, and will be henceforward reconciled to James. I have satis- 
fied all your claims on him. I have paid his Debt in full : and 
you are too just to require the same debt to be paid twice 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 1S9 

over. You will therefore regard him with the same compla- 
cency, and receive him into your presence with the same love, 
as if there had been no difference between him and you. For 
I have made ii up.'''' What other reply could the swelling 
heart of the Mother dictate than this ? " O misery ! and is it 
possible that you are in league with my unnatural child to 
insult me ? Must not the very necessity oi your abandonment 
of your proper sphere form an additional evidence of his guilt ? 
Must not the sense of yoUr goodness teach me more fully to 
comprehend, more vividly to feel the evil in him? Must 
not the contrast of your merits magnify his Demerit in his 
Mother's eye and at once recall and embitter the conviction of 
the canker-worm in his soul ?" 

If indeed by the force of Matthew's example, by persuasion 
or by additional and more mysterious influences, or by an in- 
ward co-agency, compatible with the idea of a personal will,, 
James should be led to repent ; if through admiration and love 
of this great goodness gradually assimilating his mind to the 
mind of his benefactor, he should in his own person become a 
grateful and dutiful child — then doubtless the mother would be 
wholly satisfied ! But then the case is no longer a question of 
Thingsllll^ or a matter of Debt payable by another. Never- 
theless, the Effect., — and the reader will remember, that it is 
the effects and consequences of Christ's mediation, on which St. 
Paul is dilating — the Effect to James is similar in both cases, 
t. e. in the case of James, the Debtor, and of James, the undu- 
tiful Son. In both cases, James is liberated from a grievous 
burthen ; and in both cases, he has to attribute his liberation 
to the Act and free grace of another. The only difference is, 
that in the former case (viz. the payment of the debtj the 
beneficial Act is, singly and without requiring any re-action or 
co-agency on the part of James, the efficient cause of his libe- 
ration; while in the latter case (viz. that of Redemption) the 
beneficial Act is, first, the indispensable Condition, and then^ 
the Co-efficient. 

The professional Student of Theology will, perhaps, under- 
stand the different positions asserted in the preceding Argu- 



200 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

ment more readily if they are presented synoptically, i. e, 
brought at once within his view, in the form of Answers to 
four Questions, comprising the constituent parts of the Scrip- 
tural Doctrine of Redemption. And I trust that my Lay Read- 
ers of both sexes will not allow themselves to be scared from 
the perusal of the following short catechism by half a dozen 
Latin words, or rather words with Latin endings, that trans- 
late themselves into English, when I dare assure them, that 
they will encounter no other obstacle to their full and easy 
comprehension of the contents. 

Synojysis of the Constituent Points in the Doctrine of Re- 
demption, in Four Questions, with correspondent Answers, 

QUESTIONS. 

(I. Agens Causator? 

^xr^ , ixn x\ • xi, I 2. Actus Causativus? 
Who (or What) .s the 3 ^^^^^^^^ Causatum? 

[ 4. Consequentia ab Effecto ? 

Answers. 

\. The Agent and Personal Cause of the Redemption of 
Mankind is — the co-eternal Word and only begotten Son of 
the Living God, incarnate, tempted, agonizing (Agonistes 
aywvi^o/jiEvog), crucified, submitting to Death, resurgent, commu- 
nicant of his Spirit, ascendent, and obtaining for his Church 
the Descent and Communion of the Holy Spirit, tlie Com- 
forter. 

n. The Causative Act is — a spiritual and transcendent Mys- 
tery, " that passeth all understanding," 

in. The Effect caused is — the being born anew : as before 
in the flesh to the World, so now born in the spirit to Christ. 

IV. The Consequents from the Effect are — Sanctification 
from Sin, and Liberation from the inherent and penal conse- 
quences of Sin in the World to come, with all the means and 
processes of Sanctification by the Word and the Spirit : these 
Consequents being the same for the Sinner relatively to God 
and his own Soul, as the satisfaction of a debt for a Debtor 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL, RELIGIO^JT. 201 

relativeljMo his Creditor ; as (lie saciidcial atonement made 
by the Priest for the Transgressor of the Mosaic Law ; as the 
teconciliation to an alienated Parent for a Son who had es- 
tranged himself from his Father's house and presence ; and as 
a redemptive Ransom for a Slave or Captive. 

Now I complain, that this metaphorical Naming of the 
transcendent Causative Act through the medium of its proper 
effects from Actions and Causes of familiar occurrence connect- 
ed with the former by similarity of Result, has been mistaken 
for an intended designation of the essential character of the 
Causative Act itself; and that thus Divines have interpreted 
de omni what was spoken de singuloy and magnified a partial 
equation into a total identity. 

I will merely hint, to my more learned readers, and to the 
professional Students of Theology, that the origin of this error 
is to be sought for in the discussions of the Greek Fathers, 
and (at a later period) of the Schoolmen, on the obscure and 
abysmal subject of the Divine A-seity^ and the distinction be- 
tween the S:>]X7],aa and the /SouXt], i. e. the absolute Will, as the 
universal Ground of all Being, and the Election and purpose 
of God in the personal Idea, as the Father. And this View 
would have allowed me to express (what I believe to be) the 
true import and scriptural idea of Redemption in terms much 
more nearly resembling those used ordinarily by the Calvinis- 
tic Divines, and with a conciliative show of coincidence. But 
this motive was outweighed by the reflection, that I could not 
rationally have expected to be understood by those, to whom 
I most wish to be intelligible : et si non vis intelligi, cur vis 
legi ? 

N. B. Not to countervene the purpose of a Synopsis, I 
have detached the confirmative or explanatory remarks from 
the Answers to Questions II. and III. and place them below 
as Scholia. A single glance of the eye will enable the read- 
er to re-connect each with the sentence it is supposed to fol- 
low. 

26 



202 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Scholium to Ans. II. 

Nevertheless, the fact or actual truth having been assured 
to us by Revelation J it is not impossible, by steadfast medita- 
tion on the idea and super-natural character of a personal 
Will, for a mind spiritually disciplined to satisfy itself, that 
the redemptive act supposes ( and that our redemption is even 
negatively conceivable only on the supposition of) an Agent who 
can at once act on the Will as an exciting cause, quasi ab extra ; 
and in the Will, as the condition of its potential, and the 
ground of its actual, Being. 

Scholium to Ans. III. 

W^here two subjects, that stand to each other in the relatfonr 
of antithesis ( or contradistinction ) are connected by a middle 
term common to both, the sense of this middie term is indiffer-^ 
ently determinable by either : the preferability of the one or 
the other in any given, case being decided by the circumstance 
of our more frequent experience of, or greater familiarity with, 
the Tenn in this connexion. Thus, if 1 put Hydrogen and 
Oxygen Gas„ as opposite Poles, the term Gas, is common to 
both ; and it is a matter of indifference, by which of the two 
bodies I ascertain the sense of the Term. But if for the con- 
joint purposes of connexion and con-trast, I oppose transparent 
crystalized Alumen to opake derb (wnc/ir^/^^a/i^^ed) Alumen;, 
it may easily happen to be far more convenient for me to show 
the sense of the middleterm, i. e. Alumen, by a pi€"Ce of Pipe- 
clay than by a Sapphire or Ruby ; especially, if I should be de- 
scribing the beauty and preciousness of the latter to a female 
Peasant, or in a District, where a Ruby was a rarity which the 
Fewest only had an opportunity of seeing. This is a plain rule 
of common Logic directed in its application by Common Sense ^ 

Now let us apply this to the case in hand. The two oppo- 
sites here are Flesh and Spirit, this in relation to Christ, that 
in relation to the World : and these two Opposites are con- 
nected by the middle term, Birth, which is of course common 
to both. But for the same reason, as in the instance last-men- 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 203 

tloned, the interpretation of the common term is to be ascer- 
tained from its known sense, in the more familiar connexion — 
Birth, namely, in relation to our natural life and to the Organ- 
ized Body, by which we belong to the present World. What- 
ever the word signifies in this connexion, the same essentially 
(in kind though not in dignity and value) must be its signifi- 
cation in the other. How else could it be ( what yet in this 
text it undeniably ts), the punctum indjffcrens or nota commu- 
nis, of the Thesis (Flesh: the World) and the Antithesis 
( Spirit : Christ)? We might, therefore, supposing a writer to 
have been speaking of River-water in distinction from Rain- 
water, as rationally pretend that in the latter phrase the term, 
Water, was to be understood metaphorically, as that the word, 
Birth, is a metaphor, and " means only " so and so, in the Gos- 
pel according to St. John. 

There is, I am aware, a numerous and powerful Party in 
o«r church, so', numerous and jwvv^erful as not seldom to be 
entitled the Church, who hold and publicly t-each, that *' Re- 
generation is only Baptism." ' Nay, the Writer of the Article 
on the Lives of Scott and Newton in our ablest and most re- 
spectable Review, is but one among many who do not hesi- 
tate to brand the contrary opinion as heterodoxy, and schis- 
matical superstition. I trust, that I think as seriously, as most 
men, of the evil of Schism ; but with every disposition to pay 
the utmost deference to an acknowledged majority, including, 
it is said, a very large proportion of the present Dignitaries of 
our Church, I cannot but think it a sufficient reply, that if Re- 
generation means baptism. Baptism must mean regeneration : 
and this too, as Christ himself has declared, a regeneration in 
the Spirit. Now I would ask these Divines this simple ques- 
tion. Do they believingly suppose a spiritual regenerative 
power and agency inhering in or accompanying the sprinkling 
a few drops of water on an infant's face ? They cannot evade 
the question by saying that Baptism is a type or sign. For 
this would be to supplant their own assertion, that Regenera- 
tion means Baptism, by the contradictory admission, that 
Regeneration is the significatum, of which Baptism is the sig- 



204 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

nificant. Unless, indeed, they would incur the absurdity of 
saying, that regeneration is a type of regeneration, and Bap- 
tism a type of itself — or that Baptism only means Baptism ! 
And this indeed is the plain consequence, to which they might 
be driven, should they answer the above question in the nega- 
tive. 

But if their answer be, Yes ! we do suppose and believe 
this efficiency in the baptismal act — I have not another word 
to say. Only, perhaps, I might be permitted to express a 
hope, that for consistency's sake they would speak less slight- 
ingly of the insufflation and extreme unction used in the Romish 
Church : notwithstanding the not easily to be answered argu- 
ments of our Christian Mercury, the all-eloquent Jeremy Tay- 
lor, respecting the latter, — " which, since it is used when the 
man is above half dead, when he can exercise no act of under- 
standing, it must needs be nothivg. For no rational man can 
think^ that any ceremony can make a spiritual change ivith- 
out a spiritual act of him ihat is to be changed ; nor that it 
can work by loay of nature^ oi' by charm, but morally and af- 
ter the manner of reasonable creatures.^^ 

Taylor's JEpist. Dedic. to his Holy Dyings p. 6. 

It is too obvious to require suggestion, that these words 
here quoted apply with yet greater force and propriety to the 
point in question : as the babe is an unconscious subject, which 
the dying man need not be supposed to be. My avowed con- 
victions respecting Regeneration with the spiritual baptism, as 
its Condition and Initiative, (Luke iii. 16; Mark i. 8; Matt, 
iii. 11), and of which the sacramental Rite, the Baptism of 
John, was appointed by Christ to remain as the Sign and Fig- 
ure; and still more, perhaps my belief respecting the Mystery 
of the Eucharist, ( concerning which I hold the same opinions 
as Bucer, Strype's Life of Archb. Cranmer, Appendix), Peter 
Martyr, and presumably Cranmer himself — these convictions 
and this belief will, I doubt not, be deemed by the Orthodox 
de more Grotii, who improve the letter of Arminius with the 
spirit of the Socini, sufficient data to bring me in guilty of ir- 
rational and superstitious Mysticism. But I abide by a max- 



APHORISMS ON SPTT?TTUAL FELIGION. 205 

iin, which I learnt at an early period of my theological studies, 
from Benedict Spinoza. Where the Alternative lies between 
the Absurd and the Incomprehensible, no wise man can be at 
a loss which of the two to prefer. To be called irrational, is a 
trifle : to be so, and in matters of religion, is far otherwise : 
and whether the irrationality consists in men's believing (i. e. 
in having persuaded themselves that they believe) against 
reason, or without reason, I have been early instructed to con- 
sider it as a sad and serious evil, pregnant with mischiefs, po- 
litical and moral. And by none of my numerous Instructors 
so impressively, as by that great and shining Light of our 
Church in the aera of her intellectual splendour, Bishop Jeremy 
Taylor : from one of whose works, and that of especial authori- 
ty for the safety as well as for the importance of the principle, 
inasmuch as it was written expressly ad populum, I will now, 
both for its own intrinsic worth, and to relieve the attention, 
wearied, perhaps, by the length and argumentative character 
rof the preceding discussion^ interpose the following Aphorism. 

APHORISM XX. JER. TAYLOR. 

Whatever is against right reason, that, no faith can oblige 
us to believe. For though Reason is not the positive and af- 
firmative measure of our faith, and our faith ought to be larger 
than our (speculativ ejjxensonj (see j^. 120) and take something 
into her heart, that Reason can never take into her eye ; yet 
in all our creed there can be nothing against reason. If Rea- 
son justly contradicts an article, it is not of the household of 
Faith. In this there is no difficulty, but that in practice we 
take care that we do not call that Reason, which is not so (see 
p. 110, 111, 142). For although Reason is a right Judge [78], 
yet it ought not to pass sentence in an enquiry of faith, until 
all the information be brought in ; all that is within, and all that 
is without, all that is above, and all that is below ; all that con- 
cerns it in experience and all that concerns it in act ; whatso- 
ever is of pertinent observation and whatsoever is revealed. 
For else Reason may argue^very well and yet conclude falsely. 
It may conclude well in Logic, and yet infer a false proposition 



206 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

in Theology (p. 110, line 27). But when our Judge is fully 
and truly informed in all that, whence she is to make her 
Judgment, we may safely follow her whithersoever she invites 
us. 

APHORISM XXI. JER. TAYLOR. 

He that speaks against his own Reason, speaks against 
his own Conscience: and therefore it is certain, no man 
serves God with a good conscience, who serves him against 
his reason. 

APHORISM XXII. THE SAME. 

By the eye of Reason through the telescope of Faith, i. e. 
Revelation, we may see what without this telescope we could 
never have known to exist. But as one that shuts the eye 
hard, and with violence curls the eye-lid, forces a phantastic 
fire from the chrystalline humour, and espies a light that never 
shines, and sees thousands of little fires that never burn ; so is 
he that blinds the eye of Reason, and pretends to see by an 
eye of Faith. He makes little images of Notions, and some 
atoms dance before him ; but he is not guided by the light, nor 
instructed by the proposition, but sees like a man in his sleep. 
In no case can true Reason and a right Faith oppose 
EACH other. 

NOTE PREFATORY TO APHORISM XXIII. 
Less on my own account, than in the hope of fore-arming 
my youthful friends, I add one other Transcript from Bishop 
Taylor, as from a Writer to whose name no taint or suspicion 
of Calvinistic or schisraatical tenets can attach, and for the pur- 
pose of softening the offence which, I cannot but foresee, will 
be taken at the positions asserted in paragraph the first of 
Aphorism VII. p 127, and the documental proofs of the same 
in p. 130, 131 : and this by a formidable party composed of 
men ostensibly of the most dissimilar Creeds, regular Church- 
Divines, voted orthodox by a great majority of suffrages, and 
the so-called Free-thinking Christians, and Unitarian Divines. 
It is the former class alone that I wish to conciliate: so far at 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 



207 



least as it may be done by removing the aggravation of novelty 
from the offensive article. And surely the simple re-asser- 
tion of one of "the two great things," which Bishop Taylor 
could assert as a fact, which, he took for granted, no Christian 
would think of controverting, should at least be controverted 
without bitterness by his successors in the Church. That 
which was perfectly safe and orthodox in 1657, in the judg- 
ment of a devoted Royalist and Episcopalian, must be at most 
but a venial heterodoxy in 1825. For the rest, I am prepared 
to hear in answer — what has already been so often, and with 
such theatrical effect dropt, as an extinguisher, on my argu- 
ments — the famous concluding period of one of the chapters in 
Paley's Moral and Political Philosophy, declared by Dr. Parr 
the finest prose passage in English Literature. Be it so ! I 
bow to so great an authority. But if the learned Doctor would 
impose it on me as the truest as well as the finest, or expect 
me to admire the Logic equally with the Rhetoric — a^jtfTaiJLai. 
I start off! As I have been unenglish enough to find in Pope's 
tomb-epigram on Sir Isaac Newton nothing better than a gross 
and wrongful falsehood conveyed in an enormous and irreve- 
rent hyperbole ; so with regard to this passage in question, 
free as it is from all faults of taste, I have yet the hardihood to 
confess, that in the sense in which the words discover and 
prove, are here used and intended, I am not convinced of the 
truth of the principle, (that he alone discovers who proves), 
and I question the correctness of the particular case, brought 
as instance and confirmation. I doubt the validity of the as- 
sertion as a general rule ; and I deny it, as applied to matters 
oi faith, to the verities of religion, in the belief of which there 
must always be somewhat of moral election, " an act of the 
Will in [it as well as of the Understanding, as much love in 
it as discursive power. True Chiistian Faith must have in it 
something of in-evidence, something that must be made up by- 
duty and by obedience." — Taylor's Worthy Communicant, p. 
160. But most readily do I admit, and most fervently do I 
contend, that the Miracles worked by Christ, both as miracles 
and as ftUfilments of prophecy, botk as signs and as wonders^ 



208 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



made plain discovery, and gave unquestionable proof, of his 
divine character and authority ; that they were to the whole 
Jewish nation true and appropriate evidences, that He was in- 
deed come who had promised and declared to their Forefa- 
thers, Behold, your God will come with vengeance, {Matt. x. 
34, Luke xii. 49), even God a recompense! He will come 
and save you! {Isaiah xxxv. 4, compared with Matt. x. 34, 
and Luke xii. 49.) I receive them as proofs, therefore, of the 
truth of every word, which he taught who was himself The 
Word : and as sure evidences of the final victory over death 
and of the life to come, in that they were manifestations of 
Him, who said: I am the Resurrection and the Life ! 

The obvious inference from the passage in question, i{ not 
its express import, is : Miracula experimento crucis esse, quo 
solo probandum erat. Homines non, pecudum instar, omnino 
perituros esse. Now this doctrine 1 hold to be altogether al- 
ien from the spirit^ and without authority in the letter^ of 
Scripture. I can recall nothing in the history of human Be- 
lief, that should induce me, I find nothing in my own moral 
Being that enables me, to understand it. I can, however, per- 
fectly well understand, the readiness of those Divines in hoc 
Paleii Dictum ore pleno jurare, qui nihil aliud in toto Evan- 
gelio invenire posse profitentur. The most unqualified admira- 
tion of this superlative passage I find perfectly . in character 
for those, who while Socinianism and Ultra- Socinianism are 
spreading like the roots of an Elm, on and just below the sur- 
face, through the whole land, and here and there at least have 
even dipt under the garden-fence of the Church, and blunt the 
edge of the Labourer's spade in the gayest parterres of our 
Baal-hamon, ( Sol. Song, viii. 1 1 ) — who, while Heresies, to 
which the Framers and Compilers of our Liturgy, Homilies and 
Articles would have refused the very name of Christianity, 
meet their eyes on the List of Rehgious Denominations for 
every City and large Town throughout the kingdom — can yet 
congratulate themselves with Dr. Paley (in his Evidences) 
that the Rent has not reached the foundation — i. e. that the 
Corruption of Man's Will ; that the responsibility of man in 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 209 

any sense in which it is not equally predicable of Dogs and 
Horses ; that the Divinity of our Lord, and even his pre-exis- 
tence ; that Sin, and Redemption through the merits of Christ ; 
and Grace ; and the especial aids of the Spirit ; and the effica- 
cy of Prayer ; and the subsistency of the Holy Ghost ; may all 
be extruded without breach or rent in the Essentials of Chris- 
tian Faith ! — that a Man may deny and renounce them all, and 
remain a fundamental Christian, notwithstanding! But there 
are many that cannot keep up with Latitudinarians of such a 
stride : and I trust, that the majority of serious Believers are 
in this predicament. Now for all these it would seem more 
in character to be of Bishop Taylor's opinion, that the Belief 
in question is presupposed in a convert to the Truth in Christ, 
but at all events not to circulate in the great whispering galle- 
ry of the Religious Public suspicions and hard thoughts of 
those who, like myself, are of this opinion ! who do not dare 
decry the religious instincts of Humanity as a baseless dream ; 
who hold, that to excavate the ground under the faith of all 
mankind, is a very questionable method of building up our 
faith, as Christians ; who fear, that instead of adding to, they 
should detract from the honor of the Incarnate Word by dis- 
paraging the light of the Word, that was in the beginning, and 
which lighteth every man ; and who, under these convictions, 
can tranquilly leave it to be disputed, in some new "Dialogues 
in the Shades," between the fathers of the Unitarian Church 
on one side, and Maimonides, Moses Mendelsohn, and Lessing 
on the other, whether the famous passage in Paley does or 
does not contain three dialectic flaws, Petitio principii, Argu- 
mentum in circulo, and Argumentum contra rem a premisso rem 
ipsam includente. 

Yes ! fervently do I contend, that to satisfy the Understand- 
ing, that there is a Future State, was not the specific Object of 
the Christian Dispensation ; and that neither the Belief of a 
^t'uture State, nor the Rationality of this belief, is the exclu- 
sive Attribute of the Christian Rehgion. An essential, 3i fun- 
damental, Article of all Religion it is, and therefore of the 
Christian ; but otherwise than as in connexion with the Sal- 

*'27 



»i6 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



vation of Mankind from the terrors of that State, among the 
essential Articles jpecw/iar to the Gospel Creed (those, for in- 
stance, by which it is contra-distinguished from the Creed of 
a religious Jew ) I do not place it. And before sentence is 
passed against me, as heterodox, on this ground, let not my 
Judges forget, who it was that assured us, that if a man did not 
believe in a state of retribution after death, previously and on 
other grounds, " neither would he believe, though a man 
should be raised from the dead." 

Again, I am questioned as to my proofs of a future state, by 
men who are so far, and only so far, professed believers, that 
they admit a God, and the existence of a Law from God : I 
give them : and the Questioners turn from me with a scoff or 
incredulous smile. Now should others of a less scanty Creed 
infer the weakness of the reasons assigned by me from their 
failure in convincing these men ; may I not remind them. Who 
it was, to whom a similar question was proposed by men of 
the same class ? But at all events it will be enough for my 
own support to remember it ; and to know that He held such 
Questioners, who could not find a sufficing proof of this great 
all-concerning verity in the words, " The God of Abraham, the 
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," unworthy of any other 
answer ! men not to be satisfied by any proof ! — by any such 
proofs, at least, as are compatible with the ends and purposes 
of all religious conviction ! by any proofs, that would not de- 
stroy the faith they were intended to confirm, and reverse the 
whole character and quality of its effects and influences ! But 
if, notwithstanding all here offered in defence of my opinion, 
I must still be adjudged heterodox and in error, — what can I 
say, but malo cum Platone errare, and take refuge behind the 
ample shield of Bishop Jeremy Taylor. 

APHORISM XXIII. TAYLOR. 

In order to his own glory, and for the manifestation of his 
goodness, and that the accidents of this world might not over- 
much trouble those good men who suffered evil things, God 
was pleased to do two great things. The one was : that he 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 211 

sent his Son into the World to take upon him our Nature, that 
every man might submit to a necessity, from which God s o« n 
Son was not exempt, when it behoved even Chrut to svffer 
and so to enter into glory. The other great thing was : that 
God did not only by Revelation and the Sermons of the Proph- 
ets fo his Church; but even to all Mankind compe«.rUJj/ 
teach and effectively persuade, that the Soul of Man does not 
d that though things were ill here, yet to the good who 
u u:ilj feel mo't of the evils of this life, they should end in 
honor'and advantages. And therefore Cicero had reason on 
his side to conclude, that there is a time and Pl-^; ^ *"s 
life wherein the wicked shall be punished and the vutuous 
rewarded ; when he considered, that Orpheus and Socrates, 
anihow many others, Just men and benefactors of mankind, 
were either s ain or oppressed to death by evil men. ( Com. 
;:; Heb. ch. xi. V. 36-39. ) " And all these rece^^■ednottU 
Promise." But when Virtue made men poor ; and f.ee speak 
^ .Tbrave truths made the wise to lose their liberty ; when 
an\xcellent life hastened an ojiprobrious death, and the obey- 
ng Reason and our Conscience lost us our Lives, or at leas 
aU the means and conditions of enjoying them : it was but 
tile toTook about for another state of things, where Justice 
hould rule and Virtue find her own portion. And therefore 
Men cast out every line, and turned every stone and tried ev- 
e varsument : and sometimes proved it well, and when they 
did nk yet they believed strongly; and thkt wkre sure of 

tVxH NO, .VEN WHKN THE. WERE NOT SURE Or THE AROU- 

MENT -(S;rman at the Funeral of Sir George Dalston, mh 
Sept. 1657, p. 2.) 

COMMENT 

A fact may be truly stated, and yet the Causes or Reasons 
assigned fo. it mistaken ; or inadequate ; or pars pro toto, one 
Zy or few of many that might or should have been adduced. 
The preceding Aphorism is an instance in point. The Phe- 
nomenon here brought forward by the Bishop, as the ground 
and occasion of men's belief of a future state-viz. the fre- 



212 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

que«t, not to say ordinary, disproportion between moral worth 
and worldly prosperity — must, indeed, at all times and in all 
countries of the Civilized World have led the observant and 
reflecting Few, the men of meditative habits and strong feel- 
ings of natural equity, to a nicer consideration of the current 
Belief, whether instinctive or traditional. By forcing the Soul 
in upon herself, this Enigma of Saint and Sage from Job, David 
and Solomon to Claudian and Boetius, this perplexing disparity 
of success and desert, has, I doubt not, with such men been 
the occasion of a steadier and more distinct consciousness of a 
Something in man different in kind^ and which not merely dis- 
tinguishes but contra-distinguishes, him from animals — at the 
same time that it has brought into closer view an enigma of 
yet haider solution — the fact, I mean, of a Contradiction in the 
Human Being, of which no traces are observable elsewhere, 
in animated or inanimate nature [79] ! A struggle of jarring 
impulses ; a mysterious diversity between the injunctions of 
the mind and the elections of the will ; and ( last not least ) the 
utter incommensurateness and the unsatisfying qualities of the 
things around us, that yet are the only objects which our sens- 
es discover or our appetites require us to pursue. Hence for 
the finer and more contemplative spirits the ever-strengthen- 
ing suspicion, that the two Phsenomena must some way or 
other stand in close connexion with each other, and that the 
Riddle of Fortune and Circumstance is but a form or effluence 
of the Riddle of Man '.And hence again, the persuasion, that the 
solution of both problems is to be sought for — hence the presen- 
timent that this solution will be found, in the co?i/ra-distinctive 
Constituent of Humanity, in the Something of Human Nature 
which is exclusively human ! And as the objects discoverable by 
the senses, as all the Bodies and Substances that we can touch, 
measure, and weigh, are either mere Totals, the unity of which 
results from the parts, often accidental j as that of a pebble, and 
always only apparent ; or Substances, whose Unity of Action 
is owing to the nature or arrangement of the partible bodies 
which they actuate or set in motion ; Steam, for instance, in a 
steam-engine, or the (so called) imponderable fluids; — as on 



H APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 213 

one hand the conditions and known or conceivable properties of 
all the objects, that cease to be, and whose whole of existence 
is then a detached and completed Past, that links on to no 
Present ; as all the properties, that we ourselves have in com- 
mon with these perishable things, differ in kind from the acts 
and properties peculiar to our Humanity, so that the former 
cannot even be conceived, cannot without a contradiction in 
terms be predicated, of the proper and immediate subject of 
the latter — for who would not smile at an ounce of Truth, or 
a square foot of Honor ? — and as whatever things in visible 
nature have the character of Permanence, and endure amid 
continual flux unchanged, like a Rainbow in a fast flying show- 
er, (ex. gr. Beauty, Order, Harmony, Finality, Law) are all 
akin to the peculia of Humanity, are all congeners of Mind and 
Will, without which indeed they would not only exist in vain, 
as Pictures for Moles, but actually not exist at all : hence, fi- 
nally, the conclusion, that the Soul of Man, as the subject of 
Mind and Will, must likewise possess a principle of perma- 
nence, and be destined to endure ! And were these grounds 
lighter than they are, yet as a small weight will make a 
Scale descend, where there is nothing in the opposite Scale, 
or painted Weights, that have only an illusive relief or promi- 
nence ; so in the Scale of Immortality slight Reasons are in 
effect weighty, and sufficient to determine the Judgment, there 
being no counterweight, no reasons against them, and no facts 
in proof of the contrary, that would not prove equally well 
the cessation of the eye on the removal or diffraction of the 
Eye-glass, and the dissolution or incapacity of the Musician on 
the fracture of his instrument or its strings. 

But though I agree with Taylor so fai', as not to doubt that 
the misallotment of worldly goods and fortunes was one prin- 
cipal occasion, exciting well-disposed and spiritually awakened 
Natures by reflections and reasonings, such as I have here 
supposed, to mature the presentiment of immortality into full 
consciousness, into a principle of action and a well-spring of 
strength and consolation ; I cannot concede to this circum- 
stance any thing like the importance and extent o( efficacy 



214 AIDS TO REFLECTION. % 

which he in this passage attributes to it. 1 am persuaded, that 
as the belief of all mankind, of all[80) tribes, and nations, and 
languages, in all ages and in all states of social union, it must 
be referred to far deeper grounds, common to man as man : 
and that its fibres are to be traced to the tap-root of Humani- 
ty. 1 have long entertained, and do not hesitate to avow, the 
conviction, that the argument from Universality of Belief, urg- 
ed by Barrow and others in proof of the first Article of the 
Creed, is neither in point of fact — for two very different ob- 
jects may be intended, and two (or more) diverse and even 
contradictory conceptions may be expressed, by the same 
Name — nor in legitimacy of conclusion as strong and unexcep- 
tionable, as the argument from the same ground for the con- 
tinuance of our personal being after death. The Bull-calf buts 
with smooth and unarmed Brow. Throughout animated Na- 
ture, of each characteristic Organ and Faculty there exists a 
pre-assurance, an instinctive and practical Anticipation : and 
no Pre-assurance common to a whole species does in any in- 
stance prove delusive. All other prophecies of Nature have 
their exact fulfilment — in every other " ingrafted word" of 
Promise Nature is found true to her Word, and is it in her 
noblest Creature, that she tells her first Lie? — (The Reader 
will, of course, understand, that I am here speaking in the as- 
sumed character of a mere Naturalist, to whom no light of 
revelation had been vouchsafed : one, who 

-with gentle heart 



Had woi-shipp'd Nature in the Hill and Valley, 
Not knowing what he loved, but loved it all !) 

Whether, however, the introductory part of the Bishop's ar- 
gument is to be leceived with more or less qualification, the 
Fact itself, as stated in the concluding sentence of the Apho- 
rism, remains unaffected, and is beyond exception true. 

If other argument and yet higher authority were required, 
I might refer to St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and to the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, which whether written by Paul, or, 
as Luther conjectured, by Apollos, is out of all doubt the 
work of an Apostolic Man filled with the Holy Spirit, and com- 



ArHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 215 

posed while the Temple and the Glories of the Temple Wor- 
ship were yet in existence. Several of the Jewish and still 
Judaizing Converts had begun to vacillate in their faith, and 
to " stumble at the stumbling-stone'' of the contrast between 
the pomp and splendor of the Old Law and the simplicity and 
humility of the Christian Church. To break this sensual 
charm, to unfascinate these bedazzled brethren, the Writer to 
the Hebrews institutes a comparison between the two reli- 
gions, and demonstrates the superior spiritual grandeur, the 
greater intrinsic worth and dignity of the Religion of Christ. 
On the other hand, at Rome where the Jews formed a numer- 
ous, powerful, and privileged class (many of them, too, by 
their proselyting zeal and frequent disputations with the 
Priests aud Philosophers trained and exercised Polemics) the 
recently-founded Christian Church, was, it appears, in greater 
danger from the reasonings of the Jewish Doctors and even of 
its own Judaizing Members, respecting the use of the new 
revelation. Thus the object of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
was to prove the superiority of the Christian Religion ; the 
object of the Epistle to the Romans to prove its necessity. 
Now there was one argument extremely well calculated to 
stagger a faith newly transplanted and still loose at its roots, 
and which, if allowed, seemed to preclude the possibility of 
the Christian Religion, as an especial and immediate revela- 
tion from God — on the high grounds, at least, on which the 
Apostle of the Gentiles placed it, and with the exclusive rights 
and superseding character, which he claimed for it. You ad- 
mit (said they) the divine origin and authority of the Law 
given to Moses, proclaimed with thunders and lightnings and 
the Voice of the Most High heard by all the People from 
Mount Sinai, and introduced, enforced, and perpetuated by a 
series of the most stupendous miracles ! Our Religion then 
was given by God : and can God give a perishable, imperfect 
religion ? If not perishable, how can it have a successor ? 
If perfect, how can it need to be superseded? The entire 
argument is indeed comprised in the latter attribute of our 
Law. We know, from an authority which you yourselves 



V 



216 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

acknowledge for divine, that our Religion is perfect. " He 
is the Rock, and his Work is perfect." (Dei^/er. xxxii. 4.) 
If then the Religion revealed by God himself to our Forefathers 
is perfect^ what need have we of another ? This objection, both 
from its importance, and from its (for the persons at least, to 
whom it was addressed) extreme plausibility, behoved to be 
answered in both epistles. And accordingly, the answer is 
included in the one (Hebrews) and it is the especial purpose 
and main subject of the other. And how does the Apo&tle 
answer it ? Suppose — and the case is not impossible [81] — a 
man of Sense, who had studied the evidences of Priestly and 
Paley with Warburton's Divine Legation, but who should be a 
perfect stranger to the Writings of St. Paul : and that I put 
this question to him : — what, do you think, will St. PauPs an- 
swer be ? Nothing, he would reply, can be more obvious. It 
is in vain, the Apostle will urge, that you bring your notions 
of probability and inferences from the arbitrary interpretation 
of a word in an absolute rather than a relative sense, to inva- 
lidate a known fact. It is a fact^ that your Religion is (in 
your sense of the word) not perfect : for it is deficient in one 
of the two essential Constituents of all true Rehgion, the Be- 
lief of a Future State on solid and sufficient grounds. Had 
the doctrine indeed been revealed, the stupendous Miracles, 
which you most truly affirm to have accompanied and attested 
the first promulgation of your Religion, would have supplied 
the requisite proof. But the doctrine was not revealed : and 
your belief of a future state rests on no solid grounds. You 
believe it (as far as you believe it, and as many of you as pro- 
fess this belief) without revelation, and without the only pro- 
per and sufficient evidence of its truth. Your Religion, there- 
fore, though of divine Origin is, (if taken in disjunction from 
the new revelation, which 1 am commissioned to proclaim) but 
a Religio dimidiata ; and the main purpose, the proper char- 
acter, and the paramount object, of Christ's Mission and Mi- 
racles, is to supply the ntissing Half by a clear discovery of a 
future state ; and ( since " he alone discovers who proves^^ ) by 
proving the truth of the doctrine, now for the first time de- 






APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 217 

clared with the requisite authority, by the lequisite, appropri- 
ate, and alone satisfactory evidence. 

But is this the Apostle's answer to the Jewish Oppugners, 
and the Judaizing false brethren, of the Church of Christ ? It 
is not the Answer, it does not resemble the Answer returned 
by the Apostle. It is neither parallel nor corradial with the 
line of Argument in either of the two Epistles, or with any 
one line ; but it is a chord that traverses them all, and only 
touches where it cuts across. In the Epist. to the Hebrews 
the direct contrary position is repeatedly asserted : and in the 
Epist. to the Romans it is every where supposed. The death to 
which the Law sentenced all Sinners ( and which even the Gen- 
tiles without the revealed Law had announced to them by their 
consciences, " the judgment of God having been made known 
even to them") must be the same death, from which they were 
saved by the faith of the Son of God, or the Apostle's reaso- 
ning would be senseless, his antithesis a mere equivoque, a 
play on a word, quod idem $onat, aliud vult. Christ "redeem- 
ed mankind from the curse of the Lvlw'"^ ( Galatians, iii. 11 ) : 
and we all know, that it was not from temporal d(5ath, or the 
penalties and afflictions of the present life, that Behevers have 
been redeemed. The Law, of which the inspired Sage of 
Tarsus is speaking, from w^hich no man can plead excuse ; the 
Law miraculously delivered in thundei-s from Mount Sinai, 
which was inscribed on tables of stone for the Jews^ and writ- 
ten in the hearts of all men (Rom. xi. 15) — the Law "holy 
and spiritual /" what was the great point, of which this Law, 
in its own name, offered no solution ? the mystery, which it 
left behind the veil, or in the cloudy tabernacle of types and 
figurative sacrifices ? Whether there was a Judgement to come 
and Souls to suffer the dread sentence ? Or was it not far ra- 
ther — what are the means of escape ? Where may Grace be 
found, and Redemption ? St. Pauls says, the latter. The 
Law brings condemnation : but the conscience-sentenced 
Transgressor's question. What shall I do to be saved ? Who 
will intercede for me ? she dismisses as beyond the jurisdic- 
tion of her Court, and takes no cognizance thereof, s:ave in 

28 



218 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

prophetic murmurs or mute out-shadowings of mystic ordinan- 
ces and sacrificial types. Not, therefore, that there is a Life 
to come, and a future state ; but what each individual Soul 
may hope for itself therein ; and on what grounds ; and that 
this state has been rendered an object of aspiration and fer- 
vent desire, and a source of thanksgiving and exceeding great 
joy : and by w^hom, and through whom, and for w^hom, and by 
what means and under what conditions — these are the peculiar 
and distinguishing fundB.ment3i\s of the Christian Faith ! These 
are the revealed Lights and obtained Privileges of the Chris- 
tian Dispensation ! Not alone the knowledge of the Boon, but 
the precious inestimable Boon itself, is the "Grace and Truth 
that came by Jesus Christ !'* I believe Moses, I believe Paul ; 
but I believe in Christ. 

APHORISM LIIGHTON. 

ON BAPTISM. 

"In those days came John the Baptist preaching. ^^ — It will 
suffice for our present purpose, if by these [82] words we di- 
rect the attention to the origin, or at least first Scriptural Rec- 
ord, of Baptism, and to the combinement of Preaching there- 
with ; their aspect each to the other, and their concurrence to 
one excellent end ; the Word unfolding the Sacrament, and 
the Sacrament sealing the Word ; the Word as a Light, infor- 
ming and clearing the sense of the Seal, and this again, as a 
Seal, confirming and ratifying the truth of the word : as you 
see some significant Seals, or engraven Signets, have a word 
about them expressing their Sense. 

But truly the Word is a Light and the Sacraments have in 
them of the same Light illuminating them. This (sacrament) 
of Baptism, the Ancients do particularly express by Light. 
Yet are they both nothing but darkness to us, till the same light 
shine in our Hearts ; for till then we are nothing but darkness 
ourselves, and therefore the most luminous things are so to us. 
Noonday is as midnight to a blind man. And we see these 
ordinances, the word and the sacrament, without profit or com- 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 219 

fort for the most part, because we have not of that Divine 
Light within us. And we have it not, because we ask it not. 



A born and bred Baptist, and paternally descended from the 
old orthodox Non-conformists, and both in his own and in his 
father's right a very dear friend of mine, had married a Mem- 
ber of the National Church. In consequence of an anxious 
wish expressed by his Lady for the baptism of their first child, 
he solicited me to put him in possession of my views respec- 
ting this controversy : though principally as to the degree, of 
importance which I attached to it. For as to the point itself, 
his natural pre-possession in favor of the Persuasion, in which 
he was born, had been confirmed by a conscientious examina- 
tion of the Arguments on both sides. As the Comment on 
the preceding Aphorism, or rather as an expansion of its sul- 
ject-matter, I will give the substance of the conversation : and 
amply shall I have been remunerated, should it be read with 
the interest and satisfaction with which it was heard. More 
particularly, should any of my Readers find themselves under 
the same or similar Circumstances. 



COMMENT 



Or Aid to Reflection in the forming of a sound Judgement 
respecting the purport and purpose of the Baptismal Rite, 
and a just appreciation of its value and importance. 
Our discussion is rendered shorter and more easy by our 
perfect agreement in certain preliminary points. We both 
disclaim alike every attempt to explain any thing into Scrip- 
ture, and every attempt to explain any thing ow^ of Scripture. 
Or if we regard either with a livelier aversion, it is the latter 
as being the more fashionable and prevalent. I mean the 
practice of both high and low Grotian Divines to explain away 
positive assertions of Scripture on the pretext , that the literal 
sense is not agreeable to Reason, that is, theik particular Rea- 



2-20 AIDS TO RErLECTION. 

son. And inasmuch as (in the only right sense of the word) 
there is no such thing as a particular*^ Reason, they must, and 
in fact they do mean, that the literal sense is not accordant to 
their Understanding, i, e. to the Notions which their Under- 
standings have been taught and accustomed to form in their 
school of Philosophy. Thus a Platonist, who should become 
a Christian, would at once, even in texts susceptible of a dif- 
ferent interpretation, recognize, because he would expect to 
find, several doctrines which the disciple of the Epicurean or 
Mechanic School will not receive on the most positive decla- 
rations of the Divine Word. And as we agree in the opinion, 
that the Minimi-fidian Party (p. 136) err grievously in the 
latter point, so I must concede to you, that too many Psedo- 
baptists (Assertors of Infant Baptism) have erred, though less 
grossly, in the former. I have, I confess, no eye for these 
smoke-like Wieaths of Inference, this ever-widening spiral 
Ergo from the narrow aperture of perhaps a single Text : or 
rather an interpretation forced into it by construing an idio- 
matic phrase in an artless Narrative with the same absolute- 
ness, as a it had formed part of a mathematical problem ! I 
start back from these inverted Pyramids, where the apex is 
the base ! If I should inform any one that I had called at a 
friend's house, but had found nobody at home, the Family 
having all gone to the play ; and if he, on the strength of this 
information, should take occasion to asperse my friend's wife 
for unmotherly conduct in taking an infant, six months old, to 
a crowded theatre ; would you allow him to press on the 
words, nobody and all the family, in justification of the slander ? 
Would you not tell him,rthat the words were to be interpreted 
by the nature of the subject, the purpose of the speaker, and 
their ordinary acceptation } And that he must or might have 
known, that Infants of that age would not be admitted into the 
Theatre ? Exactly so, with regard to the words, " he and all 
his Household." Had Baptism of Infants at that early period 
of the Gospel been a known practice, or had this been previ- 
ously demonstrated, — then indeed the argument, that in all 
probability there was one or more infants or young children in 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 221 

SO large a family, would be no otherwise objectionable than as 
being superfluous, and a sort of anticlimax in Logic. But if 
the words are cited as the proof, it would be a clear petitio 
prindpiij though there had been nothing else against it. But 
when we turn back to the Scriptures preceding the narrative, 
and find Repentance and Belief demanded as the terms and in- 
dispensable Conditions of Baptism — then the case above ima- 
gined applies in its full force. Equally vain is the pretended 
analogy from circumcision, which was no sacrament at all; but 
the means and mark of national distinction. In the first in- 
stance it was, doubtless a privilege or mark of superior rank 
conferred on the Descendants of Abraham. In the patriarchal 
times this rite was confined ( the first Governments being The- 
ocracies) to the Priesthood, who were set apart to that office 
from their Birth. At a later period this Token of the premier 
cldss was extended to Kings. And thus, when it was re-or- 
dained by Moses for the whole Jewish Nation, it was at the 
same time said — Ye are all Priest^ and Kings — Ye are a con- 
secrated People. In addition to this, or rather in aid of this. 
Circumcision was^intended to distinguish the Jews by some in- 
delible sign : and it was no less necessary that Jewish chil- 
dren should be recognizable as Jew^s, than Jewish adults — not 
to mention the greater safety of the rite in infancy. Nor was 
it ever pretended that any Grace was conferred with it^ or that 
the Rite was significant of any inward or spiritual Operation. 
In short, an unprejudiced and competent Reader need only pe- 
ruse the first 33 Paragraphs of the 18th Section of Taylor's 
Liberty of Prophesying ; and then compare with these the re- 
mainder of the Section added by him after the Restoration : 
those, namely, in which he attempts to overthrow his own ar- 
guments. I had almost said, affects : for such is the feeble- 
ness, and so palpable the sophistry, of his Answers, that I find 
it difficult to imagine, that Taylor himself could have been sat- 
isfied with them. The only plausible arguments apply with 
equal force to Baptist and Paedo-baptist ; and would prove, if 
they proved any thing, that both were wrong, and the Qua- 
kers only in the right. 



222 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Now, in the fiist place, it is obvious, that nothing conclusive 
c m be drawn from the silence of the New Testament respect- 
ing a practice, which, supposing it already in use, must jet 
from the character of the first Converts, have been of compara- 
tively rare occurrence; and which from the predominant, and 
more concerning. Objects and Functions of the Apostolic 
Writers (1 Corinth, i. 17) was not likely to have been men- 
tioned otherwise than incidentally, and very probably therefore 
might not have occurred to them to mention at all. But, sec- 
ondly, admitting that the practice was introduced at a later pe- 
riod than that in which the Acts of the Apostles and the Epis- 
tles were composed : I should jet be fully satisfied, that the 
Church exercised herein a sound [83] discretion. On either 
supposition, therefore, it is never without regret that I see a 
Divine of our Church attempting to erect forts on a position so 
evidently commanded by the strong-hold of his Antagonists. 
I dread the use which the Socinians may make of their exam- 
ple, and the Papists of their failure. Let me not, however, 
deceive you. (The Reader understands^ that I suppose my- 
self conversing ivith a Baptist. ) I am of opinion, that the Di- 
vines on your side are chargeable Avith a far more grievous 
mistake, that of giving a carnal and Judaizing interpretation 
to the various Gospel Texts in which the terms, baptism and 
baptize, occur, contrary to the express and earnest admoni- 
tions of the Apostle Paul. And this I say without in the least 
retracting my former concession, that the Texts appealed to, 
as commanding or authorizing Infant Baptism, are all without 
exception made to bear a sense neither contained nor deduci- 
ble: and likewise that ( historically considered) there exists no 
sufficient positive evidence, that the Baptism of Infants was 
instituted by the Apostles in the practice of the Apostolic 
Age [84]. 

Lastly, we both co-incide in the full conviction, that it is nei- 
ther the outward ceremony of Baptism, under any form or 
circumstance, nor any other ceremony; but such a faith in 
Christ as tends to produce a conformity to his holy doctrines 
and example in heart and life, and which faith is itself a de- 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 223 

dared mean and condition of our partaking of his spiritual 
Body, and of being " clothed upon" with his righteousness ; 
that properly makes us Christians, and can alone be enjoined 
as an Article of Faith necessary to Salvation, so that the deni- 
al thereof may be denounced as "a damnable heresy." In 
the strictest sense of essential, this alone is the essential in 
Christianity, that the same spirit should be growing in us which 
was in the fullness of all perfection in Christ Jesus. What- 
ever else is named essential is such because, and only as far 
as, it is instrumental to this or evidently implied herein. If 
the Baptists hold the visible Rite indispensable to Salvation, 
with what terror must they not regard every disease that befel 
their children between Youth and Infancy! But if they are 
saved by the faith of the Parent, then the outward rite is not 
essential to Salvation, otherwise than as the omission should 
arise from a spirit of disobedience : and in this case it is the 
cause, not the effect, the wilful and unbaptized Heart, not the 
unbaptizing Hand, that perils it. And surely it looks very 
like an inconsistency to admit the vicarious faith of the Pa- 
rents and the therein implied promise, that the child shall be 
christianly bred up, and as much as in them lies prepared for 
the communion of saints — to admit this, as safe and sufficient 
in their own instance, and yet to denounce the same belief 
and practice as hazardous and unavailing in the Established 
Church — the same, I say, essentially, and only differing from 
their own by the presence of two or three Christian Friends 
as additional Securities, and by the promise being expressed ! 
But you, my filial Friend ! have studied Christ under a bet- 
ter Teacher — the Spirit of Adoption, even the spirit that was 
in Paul, and which still speaks to us out of his writings. You 
remember and admire the saying of an old Divine, that a cere- 
mony duly instituted was a Chain of Gold around the Neck of 
Faith ; but if in the wish to make it co-essential and consub- 
stantial, you draw it closer and closer, it may strangle the 
Faith, it was meant to deck and designate. You are not so 
unretentive a Scholar as to have forgotten the "pateris et au- 
ro" of your Virgil: or if you were, you are not so inconsLs- 



224 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

tent a reasoner, as to translate the Hebraism, Spirit and Fire, 
in one place by spiritual fire, and yet refuse to translate Water 
and vSpirit by Spiritual Water in another place : or U, as I my- 
self think, the different position marks a different sense, yet 
that the former must be ejusdem generis with the latter — the 
Water of Repentance, reformation in conduct; and the Spirit 
that which purifies the inmost principle of action, as Fire pur- 
ges the metal substantially and not cleansing the surface only ! 
(See Aph. xxiii. p. 9 — 10.) 

But in this instance, it will be said, the ceremony, the out- 
ward and visible sign, is a Scripture Ordinance. I will not 
reply, that the Romish Priest says the same of the anointing 
the sick with oil and the imposition of hands. No ! my an- 
swer is : that this is a very sufi&cient reason for the contin- 
ued observance of a cermonial Rite so derived and sanction- 
ed, even though its own beauty, simplicity, and natural signifi- 
cancy had pleaded less strongly in its behalf! But it is no 
reason why the Church should forget, that the perpetuation 
of a thing does not alter the nature of the thing, and that a 
ceremony to be perpetuated is to be perpetuated as a cere- 
mony. It is no reason why, knowing and experiencing even 
in the majority of her own Members the proneness of the hu- 
man mind to [85] Superstition, the Church might not rightfully 
and piously adopt the measures best calculated to check this 
tendency, and correct the abuse, to which it had led in any 
particular Rite. But of superstitious notions respecting the 
baptismal ceremony and of abuse resulting, the instances were 
flagrant and notorious. Such, for instance, was the frequent 
deferring of the baptismal rite to a late period of Life, and 
even to the death-bed, in the belief that the mystic w^ater 
would cleanse the baptized person from all sin and ( if he died 
immediately after the performance of the ceremony) send him 
pure and spotless into the other World. 

Nor is this all. The preventive remedy applied by the 
church is legitimated as well as additionally recommended by 
the following consideration. Where a ceremony answered and 
was intended to answer several purposes, which purpose* at 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. Z'Zb 

its first institution were blended in respect of the time, but 
which afterwards by change of circumstances (as when, for 
instance, a large and ever-increasing proportion of the mem- 
bers of the Church, or those who at least bore the Christian 
name, were of Christian Parents) were necessarily disunited — 
then either the Church has no power or authority delegated to 
her (which is shifting the ground of controversy ) — or^e must 
be authorized to choose and determine, to which of the several 
purposes the ceremony should be attached. Now one of the 
purposes of Baptism was — the making it publicly manifest^ 
first, what Individuals were to be regarded by the World 
(Phil. ii. 15) as belonging to the visible Community of Christ- 
ians : inasmuch as by their demeanour and apparent condition 
the general estimation of "the City set on a hill and not to be 
hid" (Math. v. 14J could not be affected — the City that even 
" in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation" was bound 
not only to give no cause, but by all innocent means to pre- 
vent every occasion, of " Rebuke r" Secondly, to mark out 
those that were entitled to that especial Dearness ; that watch- 
ful and disciplinary Love and Loving-kindness ; which over 
and above the affections and duties of Philanthropy and Uni- 
versal Charity, Christ himself had enjoined, and with an em- 
phasis and in a form significant of ii» great and especial impor- 
tance. A New Commandment I give unto you, that ye love 
one another. By the former the Body of Christians was to be 
placed in contrast with the notorious misanthropy and bigotry 
of the Jewish Church and People : and thus without draw-back^ 
and precluding the objection so commonly made to Sectarian 
Benevolence, to be distinguished and known to all men by 
their fervid fulfilment of the latter. How kind these Christ- 
ians are to the poor and afflicted, without distinction of re- 
ligion or country ! But how they love each other ! 

Now combine with this the consideration before urged — the 
duty, I mean and necessity of checking the superstitious abuse 
of the baptismal rite : and I then ask, with confidence, in what 
way could the Church have exercised a sound discretion more 
wisely, piously, or effectively, than by affixing, from among 

29 



225 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

the several ends and purposes of Baptism, the outward cere- 
mony to the purposes here mentioned ? How could the great 
Body of Christians be more plainly instructed as to the true 
nature of all outward ordinances ? What can be conceived bet- 
ter calculated to prevent the ceremony from being regarded as 
other and more than a ceremony, if not the administration of 
the same on an object j ( yea, a dear and precious object ) of 
spirital duties, but a subject of spiritual operations and graces 
only by anticipation and in hope ; — a subject, unconscious as a 
Flower of the dew falling on it or the early rain, and thus em- 
blematic of the myriads who ( as in our Indian Empire, and 
henceforward, we trust, in Africa) are temporally and even 
morally benefited by the outward existence of Christianity, 
though as yet ignorant of its saving truth ! And yet, on the 
other hand, what more reverential than the application of this, 
the common initiatory rite of the East sanctioned and appropri- 
ated by Christ — its application, I say, to the very subjects, 
whom he himself commanded to be brought to him — the chil- 
dren in arms^ respecting whom " Jesus was much displeased 
with his disciples, who had rebuked those that brought them !" 
What more expressive of the true character of that originant 
and generic Stain, from which the Son of God, by his myste- 
rious incarnation and agony and death and resurrection, and 
by the baptism of the Spirit, came to cleanse the Children of 
Adam, than the exhibition of the outward element to Infants 
free from and incapable of crime, in whom the evil principle 
was present only as potential being, and whose outward sem- 
blance represented the Kingdom of Heaven ? And can it — to 
a man, who would hold himself deserving of Anathema Mar an- 
atha (1 Cor. xvi. 22,) if he did not " lm)e the Lord Jesus" — 
can it be nothing to such a man, that the introduction and com- 
mendation of a new Inmate, a new spiritual Ward, to the as- 
sembled Brethren in Christ ( — and this, as I have shown above, 
was one purpose of the baptismal Ceremony) does in the bap- 
tism of an Infant recall our Lord's own presentation in the 
temple on the eighth day after his birth ? Add to all these con- 
siderations the known fact of the frequent exposure and the 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 221 

general light regard of Infants, at the time when Infant Bap- 
tism is by the Baptists supposed to have been first ruledhy 
the CathoUc Church, not overlooking the humane and charita- 
ble motives, that influenced Cyprian's decision in its favor! 
And then make present to your imagination, and meditatively 
contemplate the still continuing tendency, the profitable, the 
beautiful effects, of this ordinance now and for so many cen- 
turies back on the great Mass of the Population throughout 
Christendom—the softening, elevating exercise of Faith and 
the Conquest over the senses, while in the form of a helpless 
crying Babe the Presence, and the unutterable Worth and Val- 
ue"^, of an immortal Being made capable of everlasting bliss are 
solemnly proclaimed and carried home to the mind and heart 
of the Hearers and Beholders ! Nor will you forget the proba- 
ble influence on the future education of the Child, the oppor- 
tunity of instructing and impressing the friends, relatives, and 
parents in their best and most docile mood ! These are indeed, 
the mollia tempora fandi. 

It is true, that by an unforseen acccident, and through the 
propensity of all Zealots to caricature partial truth into total 
falsehood— it is too true, that a Tree the very contrary in quali- 
ty of that shown to Moses {Exod. xv. 25) was afterwards 
"cast into the sw^eet waters from this fountain," and made 
them like " the waters of Marah," too bitter to be drunk. I 
allude to the Pelagian Controversy, the perversion of the Ar- 
ticle of Original Sin by Augustine, and the frightful conclusions 
which this durus pater infantum drew from the Article thus 
perverted. It is not, however, to the predecessors of this 
African, whoever they were that authorized Psedo-baptism, 
and at whatever period it first became general— it is not to the 
Church at the time being, that these consequences are justly 
imputable. She had done her best to preclude every super- 
stition, by allowing in urgent cases any and every Adult, Man 
and Woman, to administer the ceremonial part, the outward 
rite, of baptism; but reserving to the highest Functionary of 
the Church (even to the exclusion of the Co-presbyters) the 
most proper and spirital purpose, viz. the declaration of Repen- 



228 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

tance and Belief, the free Choice of Christ, as his Lord, and 
the open profession of the Christian Title by an individual in 
his own name and by his own deliberate act. The admission, 
and public reception of the Believer into the name of the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost — this office of Religion, 
the essentially moral and spiritual nature of which could not 
be mistaken, this most solemn office the Bishop alone was to 
perform. Thus— as soon as the purposes of the ceremonial 
Rite were by change of circumstance divided, that is, took 
place at different periods of the Believer's Life — to the out- 
ward purposes, where the effect was to be produced on the 
minds of others, the Church contiuued to affix the outward 
rite ; while to the substantial and spiritual purpose, where the 
effect was to be produced on the Individual's own mind, she 
gave its beseeming dignity by an ordinance not figurative, but 
standing in the direct cause and relation of means to the end. 

In fine, there are two great Purposes to be answered, each 
having its own subordinate purposes, and desirable consequen- 
ces. The Church answers both, the Baptists one only. If, 
nevertheless, you would still prefer the union of the baptismal 
rite with the Confirmation, and the Presentation of Infants to 
the assembled Church had formed a separate institution, avow- 
edly prospective — I answer : first, that such for a long time 
and to a late period was my own Judgment. But even then it 
seemed to me a point, as to which an indifference would be 
less inconsistent in a lover of Truth, than a zeal to separation 
in a professed lover of Peace. And secondly, I would revert 
to the History of the Reformation, and the calamitous accident 
of the Peasant's War : when the poor ignorant multitude, 
driven frantic by the intolerable oppressions of their feudal 
Lords, rehearsed all the outrages that were acted in our own 
times by the Parisian Populace headed by Danton, Marat, and 
Robespierre ; and on the same outrageous Principles, and in 
assertion of the same Rights of Bbutes to the subversion of 
all the Duties of Men. In our times, most fortunately for 
the interests of Religion and Morality, or of their prudential 
Substitutes at least, the Name of Jacobin was every where 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 299 

associated with that of Atheist and Infidel. Or rather, Jaco- 
binism and Infidelity where the two Heads of the Revolution- 
ary Geryon — connatural misgrowths of the same Monster- 
trunk. In the German Convulsion, on the contrary, by a mere 
but most unfortunate accident^ the same Code of Caliban Juris- 
prudence, the same sensual and murderous Excesses, were 
connected with the name of Anabaptist. The Abolition of 
Magistracy, Community of Goods, the Right of Plunder, 
Polygamy, and whatever else was fanatical, were comprised 
in the word, Anabaptism ! It is not to be imagined, that the 
Fathers of the Reformation could, without a miraculous influ- 
ence, have taken up the question of Infant Baptism with the 
requisite calmness and freedom of Spirit. It is not to be 
wished, that they should have entered on the discussion. Nay, 
I will go farther. Unless the Abolition of Infant Baptism can 
be shown to be involved in some fundamental article of Faith, 
unless the Practice could be proved fatal or imminently peril- 
ous to Salvation, the Reformers would not have been justified 
in exposing the yet tender and struggling cause of Protestantism 
to such certain and violent prejudices as this Innovation would 
have excited. Nothing less than the whole substance and 
efficacy of the Gospel Faith was the prize, which they had 
wrestled for and won ; but won from enemies still in the field, 
and on the watch to re-take, at all costs, the sacred Treasure, 
and consign it once again to darkness and oblivion. If there 
be a time for all things, this was not the time for an innovation, 
that would and must have been followed by the triumph of the 
enemies of scriptural Christianity, and the alienation of the 
Governments, that had espoused and protected it. 

Remember, I say this on the supposition of the question's 
not being what you do not pretend it to be, an Essential of 
the Faith, by which we are saved. But should it likewise be 
conceded, that it is a disputable point — and that in point of 
fact it is and has been disputed by Divines, whom no pious 
Protestant of any denomination will deny to have been faith- 
ful and eminent servants of Christ — should it, I say, be like- 
wise conceded that the question of Infant Baptism is a point, 



230 AIDS TO REFLKCTIOX. 

on which two Christians, who perhaps differ on this point only, 
may differ wdthout giving just ground for impeaching the piety 
or competence of either — in this case I am obliged to infer, 
that the Person who at any time can regard this difference as 
singly warranting a separation from a religious Community, 
must think of Schism under another point of View, than I have 
been taught to contemplate it by St. Paul in his epistles to the 
Corinthians. 

Let me add a few words on a diversity of doctrine closely 
connected with this : the opinions of Doctors Mant and D'Oy- 
ley as opposed to those of the ( so called ) Evangelical Clergy. 
" The Church of England (says Wall [86] ) does not require 
assent and consent" to either opinion " in order to lay com- 
munion." But I will suppose the person a Minister; but 
Minister of a Church which has expressly disclaimed all pre- 
tence to infallibity, a Church which in the construction of its 
liturgy and articles is known to have worded certain passages 
for the purpose of rendering them subscribable by both A and 
Z — i. e. the opposite parties as to the points in controversy. 
I suppose this person's convictions those of Z, and that out of 
five passages there are three, the more natural and obvious 
sense of which is in his favor ; and two, of which though not 
ahsoiutelj precluding a different sense, yet the more probable 
interpretation is in favor of A i. e. of those who do not con- 
sider the Baptism of an Infant as prospective, but hold it to be 
an Opus Operans et in prcesenti. Then I say, that if such a 
person regards these two sentences or single passages as obli- 
ging or warranting him to abandon the Flock entrusted to his 
charge, and either to join such, as are the avowed Enemies of 
the Church on the double ground of its particular Constitution 
and of its being an Establishment, or to set up a separate 
Church for himself— 1 cannot avoid the conclusion, that either 
his Conscience is morbidly sensitive in one speck to the ex- 
haustion of the sensibilty in a far larger portion ; or that he 
must have discovered some mode, beyond the reach of my 
conjectural powers, of interpreting the scriptures enumerated 
in the following Excerpt from the popular Tract before cited, 



APHORISMS ON SPIRITUAL RELIGION. 231 

in which the writer expresses an opinton, to which I assent 
with my whole heart : viz. 

" That all Christians in the world that hold the same funda- 
mentals ought to make one church, though differing in lesser 
opinions ; and that the sin, the mischief, and danger to the 
souls of men, that divide into those many sects and parties 
among us, does (for the most of them) consist not so much in 
the opininions themselves, as in their dividing and separating 
for them. And in support of this tenet, I will refer you to 
some plain places of Scripture, which if you please now to 
peruse, I will be silent the while. See what our Saviour him- 
self says, Johnx. 16. John xvii. 11. And what the primitive 
Christians practised, Acts ii. 46, and iv. 32. And what St. 
Paul says 1 Cor. i. 10, 11, 12, and iii. 2, 3, 4, also the whole 
12th chapter : Eph. ii. 18, &c. to the end. Where the Jewish 
and Gentile Christians are showed to be one body, one household, 
one temple fitly framed together : and yet these were of differ- 
ent opinions in several matters. Likewise chap. iii. 6, iv. 1. 
to 13, Phil.ii. 1, 2. where he uses the most solemn adjurations 
to this purpose. But I would more especially recommend to 
you the reading of Gal. v. 20, 21, Phil. iii. 15, 16. The 14th 
chapter to the Romans, and part of the 15th, to ver. 7, and 
also Rom. xvi. 17. 

Are not these passages plain, full, and earnest ? Do you 
find any of the controverted points to be determined by Scrip- 
ture in words nigh so plain or pathetic ? 



MARGINAL NOTE WRITTEN (iN 1816) BT THE EDITOR IN HIS OWN COPY OF 
wall's WORK. 

This and the two following pages are excellent. If I addressed the min- 
isters recently seceded, I woukl first prove from Scripture and Reason the 
justness of their doctrines concerning Baptism and Conversion. 2. 1 would 
show, that even in respect of the Prayer-book, Homihes, &c. of the Cliurcli 
of England, taken as a whole, their opponents were comparatively as ill 
off ^ themselves, if not worse. 3. That the few mistakes or inconvenient 
plu'ases of the Baptismal Service did not impose on the conscience the ne- 
cessity of resigning the pastoral office. 4. That even if they did, this 



232 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

would by no means justify schism from Lay-membei*ship : or else there 
could be no schism except from an immaculate and infallible Church. Now, 
as our Articles have declared that no Church is or ever was such, it would 
follow that there is no such sin as that of Schism — i. e. that St. Paulwi'ote 
falsely or idly. 5. That the Escape through the Channel of Dissent is 
from the Flying Pan to the Fire — or to use a less worn and vulgar simile, 
tlie Escape of a Leech from a glass-jar of Water into the naked and open 
Air. But never, never, would I in one breath allow my Church to be fal- 
lible, and hi the next contend for her absolute freedom from all eiTor — ^ne- 
ver confine inspiration and perfect truth to the Scriptures, and then scold 
for the perfect Truth of each and eveiy word m the Prayer-book. Enough 
for me, if in my Heart of He ails, free from all fear of man and aU lust of 
preferment, I believe (as I do) the Church of England to be the nwst Apos- 
tolic Church ; that its doctrines and ceremonies contain nothing dangerous 
to Righteousness or Salvation ; and that the imperfections in its Liturgy 
are spots indeed, but spots on the sun, which impede neither its Light nor 
its Heat, so as to prevent the good seed from growing in a good soil and 
producing fruits of Redemption. 



\*The author had ^vritten and intended to insert a similar exposition on 
the Eucharist. But as the leadmg view has been given in the Comment 
on Redemption, its length induces him to defer it, together with the arti- 
cles on Faith and the Philosophy of Prayer, to a small supplementary Vol- 



CONCLUSION. 



I AM not so ignorant of the temper and tendency of the ag(? 
in which I live, as either to be unprepared for the Sort of re- 
marks which the literal interpretation of the Evangelist will 
call forth, or to attempt an answer to them. Visionary Ra- 
vings, Obsolete Whimsies, Transcendental Trash, &c. &c. I 
leave to pass at the price current,, among those who are wil- 
ling to receive abusive phrases as substitutes for argument. 
Should any Suborner of anonymous Criticism have engaged 
some literal y Bravo or Buffoon beforehand, to vilify this work, 
as in former instances, I would give a friendly hint to the ope- 
rative Critic that he may compile an excellent article for the 
occasion, and with very littk trouble, out of Warburton's Bro- 
chure on Grace and the Spirit, and the preface to the same. — 
There is, however, one — objection^ shall I say ? or accusation ? 
which will so often be heard from men, whose talents and re- 
puted moderation must give a weight to their words, that I owe 
it both to my own character and to the interests of my read- 
ers, not to leave unnoticed. ' The charge will probably be 
worded in this way : — there is nothing new in all this ! (as if 
novelty were any merit in questions of Revealed Religion ! ) 
It is Mysticism, all taken out of William Law, after he had 
lost his senses, poor Man ! in brooding over the Visions of a 
delirious German Cobbler, Jacob Behmen. 

Of poor Jacob Behmen I have delivered my sentiments at 
large in another work. Those who have condescended to look 
into his writings must know, that his characteristic errors are : 
first, the mistaking the accidents and peculiarities of his own 
over-wrought mind for realities and modes of thinking com- 
mon to all minds : and secondly the confusion of Nature, i. e. 
the active powers communicated to matter, with God, the Cre- ^ 
ator. And if the same persons have done more than merely 
looked into the present volume, they must have seen, that to 

30 



234 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

eradicate, and, if possible, to preclude, both the one and the 
other stands prominent among its avowed objects. ( See p. 
92—101: 116—118). . 

Of William Law's Works I am acquainted with the Serious 
Call ; and besides this I remember to have read a small tract, 
on Prayer, if I mistake not, as I easily may, it being at least 
six-and-twenty years since I saw it. He may in this or in 
other tracts have quoted the same passages from the fourth 
Gospel as I have done. But surely this affords no presumption 
that my conclusions are the same with his ; still less, that they 
are drawn from the same premises ; and least of all, that they 
w^ere adopted from his Writings. Whether Law has used the 
phrase, assimilation by faith, I know not ; but I know that I 
should expose myself to a just charge of an idle parade of my 
Reading if I recapitulated the tenth part of the Authors, An- 
cient and Modern, Romish and Reformed, from Law to Clem- 
ens Alexandrinus and Irenaeus, in whose w^orks the same 
phrase occurs in the same sense. And after all, on such a 
subject how worse than childish is the whole dispute ! 

Is the fourth Gospel authentic ? And is the interpretation, 
I have given, true or false ? These are the only questions 
which a wise man would put, or a Christian be anxious to an- 
swer. I not only believe it to be the true sense of the texts; 
but I assert that it is the only true, rational, and even tolera- 
ble sense. And this position alone I conceive myself interest- 
ed in defending. I have studied with an open and fearless 
spirit the attempts of sundry learned Critics of the Continent, 
to invalidate the authenticity of this Gospel, before and since 
Eichhorn's Vindication. The result has been a clearer assur- 
ance, and (as far as this was possible) a yet deeper conviction 
of the genuineness of all the writings, which the Church has 
attributed to this Apostle. That those, who have formed an 
opposite conclusion, should object to the use of expressions 
which they had ranked among the most obvious marks of spu- 
riousness, follows as a matter of course. But that men, who 
with a clear and cloudless assent receive the sixth chapter of 
this Gospel as a faithful, nay, inspired Record of an actual dis- 



CONCLUSION. 235 

course, should take offence at the repetition of words which 
the Redeemer himself in the perfect foreknowledge that they 
would confirm the disbelieving, alienate the unsteadfast, and 
transcend the present capacity even of his own Elect, had cho- 
sen as the most appropriate ; and which after the most decisive 
proofs, that they were misinterpreted by the greater number of 
his Hearers, end not understood by any, he nevertheless re- 
peated with stronger emphasis and ivithout comment, as the 
only appropriate symbols of the great truth he was declaring, 
and to realize which sysvsTo tfa^f ;[87]— that in their own dis- 
courses these men should hang back from all express referenee 
to these words, as if they were afraid or ashamed of them, 
though the earliest recorded ceremonies and liturgical forms 
of the primitive Church are absolutely inexplicable, except in 
connexion w^ith this discourse, and with the mysterious and 
spiritual, not allegorical and merely ethical, import of the 
same ; and though this import is solemnly and in the most un- 
equivocal terms asserted and taught by their own Church, even 
in her Catechism, or compendium of doctrines necessary for 
all her Members ; this I may, perhaps, understand ; but this I 
am not able to vindicate or excuse ! 

There is, however, one opprobrious phrase which it may be 
profitable for my younger Readers that I should explain, viz. 
Mysticism. And for this purpose I will quote a sentence or 
two from a Dialogue which, had my prescribed limits permit- 
ted, I should have attached to the present »Work ; but which 
with an Essay on the Church, as instituted by Christ, and as 
an Establishment of the State, and a series of Letters on the 
right and the superstitious use and estimation of the Bible, 
will appear in a small volume by themselves, should the re- 
ception given to the present volume encourage or permit the 
publication. 

MYSTICS AND MYSTICISM. 

" Antinous. — What do you call Mysticism ? And do you 
use the word in a good or in a bad sense ?" 

" Nous, — In the latter only : as far, at least, as we are now 



^36 AIDS TO REFLBXJTION". 

concerned with it. When a man refers to inward feelings and 
experiences J of which Mankind at large are not conscious, as 
evidences of the truth of any opinion — such a Man I call a 
Mystic : and the grounding of any theory or belief on acci- 
dents and anomalies of individual sensations or fancies, and 
the use of peculiar terms invented or perverted from their or- 
dinary significations, for the purpose of expressing these idio- 
syncracies^ and pretended facts of interior consciousness, I 
nasae Mysticism. Where the error consists simply in the 
Mystic's attaching to these anomalies of his individual tempe- 
rament the character of Reality^ and in receiving them as per- 
manent Truths, having a subsistence in the Divine Mind, 
though revealed to himself alone ; but entertains this persua- 
sion without demanding or expecting the same faith in his 
neighbours — I should regard it as a species of enthusiasm, 
always indeed to be deprecated but yet capable of co-existing 
with many excellent qualities both of Head and Heart. But 
when the Mystic by ambition or still meaner passions, or ( as 
sometimes is the case) by an uneasy and self-doubting state of 
mind that «eeks confirmation in outward sympathy, is led to 
impose his faith, as a duty, on mankind generally -. and when 
with such views he asserts, that the same experiences would 
be vouchsafed, the same truths revealed, to every man but for 
his secret wickedness and unholy will — such a Mystic is a Fa- 
natic, and in certain states of the public mind a dangerous 
Member of Society. And most so in those ages and coun- 
tries in which Fanatics of elder standing are allowed to perse- 
cute the fresh competitor. For under these predicaments. 
Mysticism, though originating in the singularities of an indi- 
vidual Nature, and therefore essentially anomalous, is never- 
theless highly contagious. It is apt to collect a swarm and 
cluster circum fana, around the new Fane: and therefore 
merits the name of Fanaticism, or as the Germans say, 
Schwarmerey, i. e. Swarm-making.^^ 

We will return to the harmless species — the enthusiastic 
Mystics : a species that may again be subdivided into two ranks. 
And it will not be other than germane to the subject, if I en* 



CONCLUSION. 237 

deavour to describe them in a sort of allegory, or parable. 
Let us imagine a poor Pilgrim, benighted in a wilderness or 
desart, and pursuing his way in the starless dark with a Ian- 
thorn in his hand. Chance or his happy genius leads him to 
an Oasis or natural Garden, such as in the creations of my 
youthful fancy I supposed Enos [88] the Child of Cain to have 
found. And here, hungry and thirsty, the way-wearied Man 
rests at a fountain ; and the Taper of his Lanthorn throws its 
Light on an overshadowing Tree, a Boss of snow-white Blos- 
soms, through which the green and growling Fruits peeped, 
and the ripe golden Fruitage glowed. Deep, vivid, and faith- 
ful are the impressions^ which the lovely Imagery comprised 
within the scanty Circle of Light, makes and leaves on his 
Memory ! But scarcely has he eaten of the fruits and drank of 
the fountain, ere scared by the roar and howl from the desart 
he hurries forward : and as he passes with hasty steps through 
grove and glade, shadows and imperfect beholdings and vivid 
fragments of things distinctly seen blend with the past and 
present shapings of his Brain. Fancy modifies Sight. His 
Dreams transfer their forms to real Objects , and these lend 
a substance and an outness to his Dreams. Apparitions greet 
him ; and when at a distance from this enchanted land, and on 
a. different track, the Daw^n of Day discloses to him a Caravan; 
a troop of his fellow-men, his memory, which is itself half 
fancy, is interpolated afresh by every attempt to recall, con- 
nect, and piece out his recollections. His narration is received 
as a Madman's Tale. He shrinks from the rude laugh and con- 
temptuous Sneer, and retires into himself. Yet the craving 
for Sympathy, strong in proportion to the intensity of his 
Convictions, impels him to unbosom himself to abstract Audi- 
tors ; and the poor Quietist becomes a Penman, and, all too 
poorly stocked for the Writer's trade, he borrows his phrases 
and figures from the only Writings to which he has had access, 
the sacred Books of his Religion. And thus I shadow out 
the enthusiast Mystic of the first sort ; at the head of which 
stands the illuminated Teutonic Thelosopher and Shoemaker, 
honest Jacob Behmen, born near Gorlitz, in Upper Lusatia, 



238 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

in the 17th of our Elizabeth's Reign, and who died in the 
22d of her Successsor's. 

To delineate a Mystic of the second and higher order, we 
need only endow our Pilgrim with equal gifts of Nature, but 
these developed and displayed by all the aids and arts of Educa- 
tion and favorable Fortune. He is on his way to the Mecca 
of his ancestral and national Faith, with a well-guarded and 
numerous Procession of Merchants and Fellow-pilgrims, on 
the established Track. At the close of Day the Caravan has 
halted : the full moon rises on the Desart : and he strays forth 
alone, out of sight, but to no unsafe distance ; and Chance 
leads him too to the same Oasis or Islet of Verdure on the Sea 
of Sand. He wanders at leisuie in its maze of Beauty and 
Sweetness, and thrids his way through the odorous and flow- 
ering Thickets into open " Spots of Greenery," and discovers 
statues and memorial characters, grottos, and refreshing Caves. 
But the Moonshine, the imaginative Poesy of Nature, spreads 
its soft shadowy charm over all, conceals distances, and mag- 
nifies heights, and modifies relations ; and fills up vacuities 
with its own whiteness, counterfeiting substance ; and where 
the dense shadows lie, makes solidity imitate Hollowness ; 
and gives to all objects a tender visionary hue and softening. 
Interpret the Moonlight and the Shadows as the peculiar 
genius and sensibility of the Individual's own Spirit : and here 
you have the other sort : a Mystic, an Enthusiast of a nobler 
Breed — a Fenelon. But the residentiary, or the frequent 
visitor of the favored spot, who has scanned its beauties by 
steady Day-light, and mastered its true proportions and linea- 
ments, he will discover that both Pilgrims have indeed been 
there ! He will know, that the delightful Dream, which the 
latter tells, is a Dream of Truth ; and that even in the be- 
wildered Tale of the former there is Truth mingled with the 
Dream. 

But the Source, the Spring-head, of the Charges which I 
anticipate, lies deep. Materialism, conscious and avowed Ma- 
terialism, is in ill-repute : and a confessed Materialist there- 
fore a rare character. But if the faith be ascertained by the 



CONCLUSION 



239 



fruits; if the predominant, though most often unsuspected, 
persuasion is to be learnt from the influences, under which the 
thoughts and affections of the Man move and take their direc- 
tion ; I must reverse the position. Only not all are Ma- 
terialists. Except a few individuals, and those for the most 
part of a single Sect: and every one, who calls himself a 
Christian, holds himself to have a Soul as well as a Body. He 
distinguishes Mind from Matter, the Subject of his conscious- 
ness from the Objects of the same. The former is his Mind : 
and he says, it is immaterial. But though Subject and Sub- 
stance are w^ords of kindred roots, nay, little less than equiv- 
alent terms, yet nevertheless it is exclusively to sensible Ob- 
jects, to Bodies, to Modifications of Matter, that he habitu- 
ally attaches the attributes of reality, of Substance. Real 
and Tangible, Substantial and Material, are Synonimes for 
fiim. He never indeed asks himself, what he means by Mind ? 
But if he did, and tasked himself to return an honest answer — 
as to what, at least, he had hitherto meant by it — he would 
find, that he had described it by negatives, as the opposite of 
Bodies, ex. gr. as a somewhat opposed to solidity, to visibility 
&c. as if you could abstract the capacity of a vessel, and con- 
ceive of it as a somewhat by itself, and then give to the emp- 
tiness the properties of containing, holding, being entered, 
and so forth. In short, though the proposition would perhaps 
be angrily denied in words, yet in fact he thinks of his Mind., 
as a property .^ or accident of a something else, that he calls a 
Soul or Spirit : though the very same difficulties must recur, 
the moment he should attempt to establish the difference. For 
either this Soul or Spirit is nothing but a thinner Body, a finer 
Mass of Matter : or the attribute of Self-subsistency vanishes 
from the Soul on the same grounds, on which it is refused to 
the Mind. 

I am persuaded, however, that the dogmatism of the Cor- 
puscular School, though it still exerts an influence on men's 
notions and phrases, has received a mortal blow from the in- 
creasingly dynamic spirit of the physical Sciences now high- 
est in public estimation. And it may safely be predicted, that 



240 AIDS TO HErLECTION. 

the results will extend beyond the intention of those, who are 
gradually effecting this revolution. It is nbt Chemistry alone 
that will be indebted to the Genius of Davy, Oersted, and 
their compeers : and not as the Founder of Physiology and 
philosophic Anatomy alone, will Mankind love and revere the 
name of John Hunter. These men have not only taught^ 
they have compelled us to admit, that the immediate objects of 
our senses^ or rather the grounds of the visibility and tangibi- 
lity of all Objects of Sense, bear the same relation and similar 
proportion to the intelligible object — i. e. to the Object which 
we actually mean when we say, " It is such or such a thing^^"* 
or " / have seen this or that^^^ — as the paper, ink, and differ- 
ently combined straight and curved lines of an Edition of Ho- 
mer bear to what we understand by the words, Iliad and 
Odyssey. Nay, nothing would be more easy than so to con- 
struct the paper, ink, painted Capitals, &c. of a printed disqui- 
sition on the Eye, or the Muscles and Cellular Texture [i. e. 
the Flesh ) of the Human Body, a& to bring together every 
one of the sensible and ponderable Stuffs or Elements, that 
are sensuously perceived in the Eye itself, or in the Flesh 
itself. Carbon and Nitrogen, Oxygen and Hydrogen, Sulphur, 
Phosphorus, and one or two Metals and Metallic Bases, con- 
stitute the whole. It cannot be these, therefore, that we 
mean by an Eye^ by our Body. But perhaps it may be a par- 
ticular Combination of these ? But here comes a question : 
In this term do you or do you not include the Principle^ the 
Operating Cause^ of the Combination ? If not, then detach 
this Eye from the Body ! Look steadily at it — as it might lie 
on the Marble Skb of a dr&secting Room. Say it were the 
eye of a Murderer, a Bellingham : or the eye of a murdered 
Patriot, a Sidney I — behold it, handle it, with its various ac- 
companiments or constituent parts, of Tendon, Ligament, 
Membrane, Blood-vessel, Gland, Humors j its Nerves of Sense, 
of Sensation, and of Motion. Alas! all these names, like 
that of the Organ itself, are so many Anachronisms, figures 
of Speech, to express that which has been : as when the 
Guide points with his finger to a heap of stones, and tells the 



CONCLUSION. 241 

Traveller, " That is Babylon, or Persepolis."— Is this cold 
"Jelly tlie Light of the Body ?" Is this the Micranthropos in 
the marvellous Microcosm' Is this what you mean when you 
well define the Eye as the Telescope and the Mirror of the 
soul, the Seat and Agent of an almost magical power ? 

Pursue the same inquisition with every other part of the 
Body, whether integral or simply ingredient ; and let a Ber- 
zelius or a Hatchett be your interpreter, and demonstrate to 
you what it is that in each actually meets your Senses. And 
when you have heard the scanty catalogue, ask yourself if these 
are indeed the living Flesh, the blood of Life? Or not far 
rather— I speak of what, as a Man of Common Sense, yon re- 
ally do, not what, as a philosopher, you ought to believe— is 
it not, I say, far rather the distinct and individualized Agen- 
cy that by the given combinations utters and bespeaks its Pres- 
ence.? Justly and with strictest propriety of language may 
I say. Speaks, It is to the coarseness of our Senses, or rath- 
er to the defect and limitation of our percipient faculty, that 
the visible Object appears the same even for a moment. The 
characters, which I am now shaping on this paper, abide. Not 
only the forms remain the same, but the particles of color- 
ing stuff are fixed, and, for an indefinite period at least, re- 
main the same. But the particles that constitute the size, the 
visibility of an organic structure (see p. 42) are in perpetual 
flux. They are to the combining and constitutive Power as 
the pulses of air to the Voice of a Discourser; or of one who 
sings a roundelay. The same words may be repeated; but in 
each second of time the articulated air hath passed away, 
and each act of articulation appropriates and gives momentary 
form to a new and other portion. As the column of blue smoke 
from a cottage chimney in the breathless Summer Noon, or 
the steadfast-seeming Cloud on the edge-point of a Hill in the 
driving air-current, which momently condensed and recomposed 
is the common phantom of a thousand successors; — such is the 
flesh, which our bodily eyes transmit to us; which our Palates 
taste; which our Hands touch. 

But perhaps the material particles possess this combining 

31 



242 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

power by inherent reciprocal attractions, repulsions, and elec- 
tive affinities, and are themselves the joint Artists of. their 
own combinations ? 1 will not reply, though well I might, that 
this would be to solve one problem by another, and merely to 
shift the mystery. It will be sufficient to remind the thoughtful 
Queii^t, that even herein consists the essential difference, the 
contia-distinction, of an Organ from a Machine ; that not on- 
ly the characteristic Shape is evolved from the invisible cen- 
tral power, but the material Mass itself is acquired by assimila- 
tion. The germinal power of the Plant transmutes the fixed 
air and the elementary Base of Water into Grass or Leaves ; 
and on these the Organific Principle in the Ox or the Elephant 
exercises an Alchemy still more stupendous. As the unseen 
Agency weaves its magic eddies, the foliage becomes indiffer- 
ently the Bone and its Marrow, the pulpy Brain, or the solid 
Ivory. That what you see is blood, is flesh, is itself the work, 
or shall I say, the translucence, of the invisible Energy, which 
soon surrenders or abandons them to inferior Powers, (for 
there is no pause nor chasm in the activities of Nature ) which 
repeat a similar metamorphosis according to their kind. These 
are not fancies, conjectures, or even hypotheses, but /ac<5 ; 
to deny which is impossible, not to reflect on which is igno- 
minious. And we need only reflect on them with a calm and 
silent spirit to learn the utter emptiness and unmeaningness of 
the vaunted Mechanico-corpuscular Philsophy, with both its 
twins, Materialism on the one hand, and Idealism, rightlier 
named Subjective Holism^ on the other : the one obtruding on 
us a World of Spectres and Apparitions ; the other a mazy 
Dream ! 

Let the Mechanic or corpuscular Scheme, which in its abso- 
luteness and strict consistency w^as first introduced by Des 
Cartes, be judged by the results. By its fruits shall it be 
known. 

In order to submit the various phaenomena of moving bodies 
to geometrical construction, we are under the necessity of ab- 
stracting from corporeal substance all its positive properties, 
and obliged to consider Bodies as differing from equal portions 



CONCLUSION 



243 



of Space [89] only by figure and mobility. And as a Fiction 
of Science, it would be difficult to overvalue this invention. 
It possesses the same merits in relation to Geometry that the 
atomic theory has in relation to Algebraic Calculus. But in 
contempt of Common Sense, and in direct opposition to the 
express declarations of the inspired Historian (Genesis I.), 
and to the tone and spirit of the Scriptures throughout, Des 
Cartes propounded it as truth of fact : and instead of a World 
created and filled with pi'oductive forces by the Almighty Fiat, 
left a lifeless Machine whirled about by the dust of its own 
Grinding : as if Death could come from the living Fountain 
of Life ; Nothingness and Phantom from the Plenitude of Re- 
ality ! the Absoluteness of Creative Will ! 

Holy ! Holy ! Holy ! let me be deemed mad by all men, if 
such be thy ordinance : but, O ! from such Madness save and 
preserve me, my God ! 

When, however, after a short interval, the Genius of Kep- 
ler, expanded and organized in the soul of Newton, and there 
(if I may hazard so bold an expression) refining itself into an 
almost celestial Clearness, had expelled the Cartesian Vorti- 
ces; [90] then the necessity of an active power, of positive 
forces present in the Material Universe, forced itself on the 
conviction. For as a Law without a Law-giver is a mere ab- 
straction ; so a Law without an Agent to realize it, a Con- 
stitution without an abiding Executive, is, in fact, not a Law 
but an Idea ! In the profound Emblem of the Great Tragic 
Poet, it is the powerless Prometheus fixed on a barren Rock. 
And what was the result ? How was this necessity provided 
for? God himself — my hand trembles as I write ! Rather, then, 
let me employ the word, which the religious Feeling in its 
perplexity, suggested as the substitute — the Deity itself was 
declared to be the real Agent, the actual Gravitating Power ! 
The Law and the Law-giver were indentified. God (says 
Dr. Priestly ) not only does, but is every thing. Jupiter est 
quodcunque vides. And thus a system, which commenced by 
excluding all life and immanent activity from the visible Uni- 
verse and evacuating the natural World of all Nature, ended 
by substituting the Deity, and reducing the Creator to a mere 



244 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Anima Mundi : a scheme that has no advantage over Spino- 
sism but its inconsistency, which does indeed make it suit a 
certain Order of Intellects, who, like the Pleuronectse (or Flat 
Fish) in Ichthyblogy that have both eyes on the same side, 
never see but half of a subject at one time, and forgetting the 
one before they get to the other are sure not to detect any 
inconsistency between them. 

And what has been the consequence ? An increasing un- 
willingness to contemplate the Supreme Being in his personal 
Attributes : and thence a Distaste to all the peculiar Doctrines 
of the Christian Faith, the Trinity, the incarnation of the Son 
of God, and Redemption. The young and ardent, ever too 
apt to mistake the inward triumph in the detection of error 
for a positive love of truth, are among the first and most fre- 
quent victims to this epidemic fastidium. Alas ! even the 
sincerest seekers after light are not safe from the contagion. 
Some have I known, constitutionally religious — I speak feel- 
ingly ; for I speak of that which for a brief period was my 
own state — who under this unhealthful influence have been so 
estranged from the Heavenly Father , the Living God, sls even 
to shrink from the personal pronouns as applied to the Deity. 
But many do I know, and yearly meet with, in whom a false 
and sickly Taste co-operates with the prevailing fashion : ma- 
ny, who find the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, far too 
real, too substantial ; who feel it more in harmony with their 
indejfipite sensations 

" To worship Nature in the hill and valley, 
Not knowing what they love : — " 

and (to use the language, but not the sense or purpose, of the 
great Poet of our Age ) would fain substitute for the Jehovah 
of their Bible 

" A sense sublime 
Of something far more deeply interfused, 
Whose dwelling is the Light of setting suns, 
And the round Ocean and tlie living Air ; 
A Motion and a Spirit, that impels 
All thinkmg things, all objects of all thought, 
And rolls through ah things ! " 

Wordsworth. 



CONCLUSION. 245 

And this from having been educated to understand the Divine 
Omnipresence in any sense rather than the alone safe and le- 
gitimate one, the presence of all things to God ! 

Be it, however, that the number of such men is compara- 
tively small ! And be it (as in fact it often is) but a brief 
stage, a transitional state, in the process of intellectual Growth ! 
Yet among a numerous and increasing class of the higher and 
middle Ranks, there is an inward withdrawing from the Life 
and Personal Being of God, a turning of the Thoughts exclu- 
sively to the so called physical Attributes, to the Omnipres- 
ence in the counterfeit form of Ubiquity, to the Immensity the 
Infinity, the Immutability ! — the attributes of Space with a no- 
tion of Power as their Substratum ! — a Fate, in short, not a 
Moral Creator and Governor ! Let intelligence be imagined, 
and wherein does the conception of God diflfer essentially from 
that of Gravitation ( conceived as the Cause of Gravity ) in the 
understanding of those, who represent the Deity not only as a 
necessary but as a necessitated Being ? those, for whom Justice 
is but a scheme of General Laws; and Holiness, and the 
divine Hatred of Sin, yea and Sin itself, are w^ords without 
meaning or accommodations to a rude and barbarous race ! 
Hence, I more than fear, the prevailing taste for Books of 
Natural Theology. Physico-theology, Demonstrations of God 
from Nature, Evidences of Christianity, &c. &c. Evidences of 
Christianity ! I am weary of the Word. Make a man feel the 
want of it ; rouse him, if you can, to the self-knowledge of 
his need of it ; and you may safely trust it to its own Evi- 
dence, — remembering only the express declaration of Christ 
himself: No man cometh to me, unless the Father leadeth 
him! Whatever more is desirable — I speak now with refer- 
ence to Christians generally, and not to profest Students of 
Theology — may, in my judgment, be far more safely and profit- 
ably taught, without controversy or the supposition of infidel 
antagonists, in the form of Ecclesiastical History. 

The last fruit of the Mechanico-corpuscular Philosophy, say 
rather of the mode and direction of feeling and thinking pro- 
duced by it on the educated class of society ; or that result. 



246 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

which as more immediately connected with my present theme 
I have reserved for the last — is the habit of attaching all our 
conceptions and feelings, and of applying all the words and 
phrases expressing reality, to the objects of the Senses ; more 
accurately speaking, to the images and sensations by which 
their presence is made known to us. Now I do not hesitate 
to assert, that it was one of the great purposes of Christianity, 
and included in the process of our Redemption, to rouse and 
emancipate the Soul from this debasing Slavery to the out- 
ward Senses, to awaken the mind to the true Criteria of Re- 
ality, viz. Permanence, Power, Will manifested in Act, and 
Truth operating as Life. " My words," said Christ, " are 
Spirit ; and they {i. e. the spiritual powers expressed by them ) 
are Truth ;" — i. e. very Being. For this end our Lord, who 
came from Heaven to " take Captivity captive," chose the 
words and names that designate the familiar yet most impor- 
tant Objects of Sense, the nearest and most concerning Things 
and Incidents of corporeal nature : — Water, Flesh, Blood, 
Birth, Bread ! But he used them in senses, that could not 
without absurdity be supposed to respect the mere pheenomena, 
Water, Flesh, &c., in senses that by no possibility could apply 
to the color, figure, specific mode of Touch or Taste produced 
on ourselves, and by which we are made aware of the pres- 
ence of Things, and understand them — Res, quae sub appari- 
tionibus istis statuenda sunt. And this awful Recalling of the 
drowsed soul from the dreams and phantom world of sensuali- 
ty to actual Reality, — how has it been evaded ! These words, 
that were Spirit ! these Mysteries, which even the Apostles 
must wait for the Paraclete, (t. e. the Helper, the Strength- 
ener ) in order to comprehend ! these spiritual things which 
can only be spiritually discerned, — were mere Metaphors, 
Figures of Speech, Oriental Hyperboles. " All this means 
only Morality !" Ah ! how far nearer to the truth would 
these men have been, had they said that Morality means all 
this ! 

The effect, however, has been most injurious to the best 
interests of our Univeisities, to our incomparably constituted 



CONCLUSION. ^^'^ 



Church, and even to our National Character. The few who 
have read my two Lay- Sermons are no strangers to my opin- 
ions on this head; and in my Treatise on the Church and 
Churches, I shall, if Providence vouchsafe, submit them to 
the Public, with their grounds and historic evidences in a 
more systematic form. 

I have, I am aware, in this present work furnished occasion 
for a charge of having expressed myself with slight and irrev- 
erence of celebrated Names, especially of the late Dr. Paley. 
O, if I were fond and ambitious of Uterary Honor, of public 
Applause, how well content should I be to excite but one 
third of the admiration which, in my inmost Being, I feel for 
the head and heart of Paley ! And how gladly would 1 sur- 
render all hope of contemporary praise, could I even approach 
to the incomparable grace, propriety, and persuasive facility 
of his writings ! But on this very account I believed myself 
bound in conscience to throw the whole force of my intellect 
in the way of this triumphal Car, on which the tutelary Gen- 
ius of modern Idolatry is borne, even at the risk of being 
crushed under the wheels ! I have at this moment before my 
eyes the 343d — 344th pages of his Posthumous Discourses : 
the amount of w^hich is briefly this,— that all the words and 
passages in the New Testament which express and contain 
the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, the paramount objects 
of the Christian Revelation, " all those which speak so strong- 
ly of the value, benefit and efficacy, of the Death of Christ," 
assuredly mean something; but ivhat they mean, nobody, 
it seems, can tell! But doubtless we shall discover it, and 
be convinced that there is a substantial sense belonging to 
these words— in a future state ! Is there an enigma, or an 
absurdity, in the Koran or the Vedas which might not be de- 
fended on the same pretence ? A similar impression, I confess, 
was left on my mind by Dr. Magee's statement or exposition 
(adnormam Grotianam) of the doctrine of Redemption: and 
deeply did it disappoint the high expectations, sadly did it 
chill the fervid sympathy, which his introductory chapter, his 
manly and masterly disquisition on the sacrificial rites of Pa- 
ganism, had raised in my mind. 



248 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

And yet I cannot read the pages of Paley, here referred to, 
aloud, without the livehest sense : how plausible and popu- 
lar they will sound to the great majority of Readers ! Thou- 
sands of sober, and in their way pious. Christians, will echo the 
words, together with Magee's kindred interpretation of the 
Death of Christ, and adopt the doctrine for their Make-faith ! 
And why? It is feeble. And whatever is feeble is always 
plausible; for it favours mental indolence. It is feeble: and 
feebleness in the disguise of confessing and condescending 
Strength is always popular. It flatters the Reader, by re- 
moving the apprehended distance between him and the supe- 
rior Author ; and it flatters him still more by enabling him to 
transfer to himself, and to appropriate, this superiority : and 
thus to make his very weakness the mark and evidence of his 
strength. Ay, quoth i\\erational Christian — or with a sighing, 
self-soothing sound between an Ay and an Ah ! — / am content 
to think, with the Great Dr. Paley, and the learned Arch- 
bishop of Dublin 

Man of Sense ! Dr. Paley was a great Man, and Dr. Magee 
is a learned and exemplary Prelate ; but You do not think at 
all! 

With regard to the convictions avowed and enforced in my 
own work, 1 will continue my address to the Man of Sense in 
the words of an old Philosopher : — " Tu vero crasssis auribus 
et obstinato corde respuis quae forsitan vere perhibeantur. 
Minus hercule calles, pravissimis opinionibus ea jiutari men- 
dacia, quce vel auditu nova, vel visu rudia, vel certe supra cap- 
turn cogitationis extemporanecB tuce ardua videantur : quae, si 
paulo accuratius exploraris, non modo compertu evidentia, sed 
etiam factu facilia, senties," Apul; 1. 1. 

S. T. COLERIDGE. 



249 



In compliance with the suggestion of a judicious friend, the 
celebrated conclusion of the fourth Book of Paley's Moral and 
Political Philosophy, cited in p. 207 of this Volume, is here 
transprinted for the convenience of the Reader : 

" Had Jesus Christ delivered no other declaration than the 
following — 'The hour is coming, in the which all that are in 
the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth : they that 
have done good, unto tlie resurrection of life ; and they that 
have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation ;' — he had 
pronounced a message of inestimable importance, and well 
worthy of that splendid apparatus of prophecy and miracles 
with which his mission was introduced, and attested : a mes- 
sage in which the wisest of mankind would rejoice to find an 
answer to their doubts, and rest to their inquiries. It is idle 
to say, that a future state had been discovered already : — 
it had been discovered as the 'Copernican System was; — it 
was one guess among many. He alone discovers, who proves; 
and no man can prove this point, but the teacher who testifies 
by miracles that his doctrine comes from God." 

Paedianus says of Virgil, — " Usque adeo expers invidiae, ut 
siquid erudite dictum inspiceret alterius, non minus gauderet 
ac si suum esset." My own heart assures me, that this is less 
than the truth : that Virgil would have read a beautiful pas- 
sage in the work of another with a higher and purer delight 
than in a work of his own, because free from the apprehension 
of his judgment being warped by self-love, and without that 
repressive modesty akin to shame, which in a delicate mind 
holds in check a man's own secret thoughts and feelings, when 
they respect himself. The cordial admiration with which I 
peruse the preceding passage as a master -piece of Composition 
would, could I convey it, serve as a measure of the vital im- 
portance I attach to the convictions which impelled me to ani- 
madvert on the same passage as doctrine, 

S. T. C. 
32 



NOTES 



ON 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



[i] p. S, 

So Leigliton mys : my own experience wotiia rather have aoggeflted the 
contrary remark. 

[For remarks on the peculiar advantages for reflection and Inducementic 
to the exercise of it, in the character and circumstances of tlie young, the 
reader is referred to the Introduction to the tliird Volume of the Friend. 
If I mistake not, there is many a yoilng man among those, who are about 
entering upon the theatre of the world, and anxiously contemplating the 
commg struggle between the generous impulses of his own spirit and the 
law, which this world imposes upon its votaries, who will understand and 
re-peruse with both pleasure and profit the language there used. The 
Friend, it may be necessaiy to remark, is a work of Coleridge but httle 
known in tliis country. Should the present volume gain the attention of 
the public, we may hope soon to see that and other works of its author re- 
published among us. Am. Ed.] 

[2] p. 3. 

Distinction bettceen Thought and Attention.^ — By thought is here meant 
the voluntary reproduction in our own minds of those states of conscious- 
ness, or (to use a phrase more familiar to the religious reader) of those in- 
ward experiences, to which, as to his beet and most authentic documents, 
the teacher of moral or religious truth refers us. In attention, we 
keep the mind passive : in thought, we rouse it into activity. In the for- 
mer, we submit to an impression — we keep the mind steady in order to 
receive the stamp. In the latter, we seek to imitate tlie artist, while we our- 
selves make a copy or duplicate of his work. We may learn arithmetic, 
or the elements of geometry, by continued attention alone ; but self -knowl- 
edge, or an insight into the laws and constitution of the human mind and 



252 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

t'le grounds of religion and true morality, in addition to the effort of atten- 
tion requires the energy of thought. 

[3] p. 3. 

[To those, who are unaccustomed to the language of the author, it may 
be of service to remark once for all, that he often aims to attain a greater 
degree of precision, and to secure the advantage, enjoyed so eminently in 
the Greek and German languages, of presenting a thought in a form, that 
is picturable to the imagination, by recalling compound and derivative 
words to their original and etymological import. He has himself remarked 
upon the benefit resulting from it in the next note, and illustrated it par- 
ticularly in several words in different parts of the work ; but the careful 
reader will often discover this pecuharity in his use of words, where no 
notice of it is given. The peculiarity indeed is not so much in his giving 
them a new sense, as in Umiting and defining \vitli more precision the 
meaning, which they have, and using in a precise and exclusive sense 
terms, which custom had rendered vague and unfit for tlie purposes of an 
accurate and discriminating mind. 

These remarks refer here particularly to tlie words enlivening and inform- 
ing, especially the latter, in the sentence, to which this note is attached. 
It will give the reader at least some clue to the author's meaning and to his 
sentiments on these subjects, if by the enlivening Breath he miderstands 
the life-givhig Breath or Spirit, and by the informing word the inward 
power or principle, which in all organized bodies modifies the hving agen- 
cy, appoints the measure of its working, and determines the specific /or/w 
of its developement in each several kind. This specific principle of or- 
ganization, which, as an antecedent law preexisting in the seed of every 
j)Iant and so in the germs of all organized bodies, awaits the actuating pow- 
er of life, predetermming the several shapes or forms. In which it is to be 
unfolded, and by which alone it is manifestable to the senses, I undei-stand 
the author to mean by the WORD ; and both the actuatuig, quickening 
spirit, and the informing word belong to all organized bodies in conmion. 
It may perhaps render the charge of novelty and absurdity in regard to the 
author's language here and elsewhere less confident to remark in passing 
that the livmg and specific agencies here spoken of are the inherent /o/vn^ 
of the Peripatetics, the ideas of Plato and Ld. Bacon, (divinae mentis ideaa. 
Nov. Or. 23 and 51), and that it is consonant with the language of the Old 
Testament to represent not only the thoughts, the ideas, but the Breath 
and the Word of the Divine Being as hving, formative, creative. Thus 
too, in reference to the higher powers of spiritual life in Christians, our 
Saviour says the tvords that I speak unto you, they are spiiit, and they are 
life^ i. e. have in them a living and life-giving energy. — Coincident with 
this view of life, as being not the mere resulting product of independent 
mechanical, chemical, or clectiical agencies, acting in harmony, but a dis- 



NOTES. 253 

tiuct, specific power, possessing its owii inherent principle of unity in eacli 
organized body, and essentially independent of the organizations, which it 
bodies forth, and from the pheenoniena, i. e. the sensible a[)pearances from 
which its existence is infeiTed, Coleridge interprets tlie vis plastica, or vis 
vitae forjiiatrix of the elder physiologists, the Uildimgstrieb, or iiisus for- 
mativus of Blumenbach, and the hfe, or living principle of John Hunter. 
" For in wliat other sense," he remarks in a note to the Friend, vol. 3. 
p. 214, " can tve understand either his assertion, that this principle or agent 
is 'independent of organization,' which yet it animates, sustains and re- 
pairs, or the purport of that magnificent commentary on his system, the 
tiiuiterian Musajum in Lincoln's Inn Fields. The Hunterian idea of a 
life or vital principle 'independent of the organization,' yet in each organ 
working instinctively towards its preserv^ation, as the ants or termites in re- 
pairing the nests of their own fabrication, demonstrates, that John Hunter 
did not, as Stahl and others had done, individualize, or make an hyposta- 
sis of the principles of fife, as a somewhat manifestable per se and conse- 
quently itself a phaenomenon ; the latency of which was to be attributed to 
accidental, or at least contingent causes, ex. gr. the limits or mipei-fcction 
of our senses, or the inaptness of the media ; but that herein he philoso- 
phized in the spirit of the purest Newtonians, who in like manner refused 
to hypostatise the law of gravitation into an ether, wliich even if its exis- 
tence were conceded, would need anqther gravitation for itself. " The 
Hunterian position is a genuine philosopliic IDEA." 

It would i)erliaps have been out of place here to occupy even so much 
space in explaining the author's views of the philosoi)liy of life, but that 
the same mode of philosophizing is applied by him to those higher pow- 
ers and principles of our intellectual, moral and spiritual being, by which we 
are made to differ in kind from the inferior forms of vegetable and animal 
organization. If the reader clearly apprehends the law of lift, as a living 
power or agency, antecedent to and independent of the visible and tan- 
gible forms, which it constructs, he will have httle difiiculty in undei-stand- 
ing what is said of the transfusion of a higher gift and specially inbreatb- 
ed, of a soul, having its hfe in itself, and independent for its subsistence 
of the inferior powers, with which it co-exists. He will be i)repared to 
ai)prehend at least the meaning of the doctrine, that distinct specific forms 
or laws of being are superadded to that hfe, which is common to all, each 
having its own developement, and by their living agency constituthig our 
intellectual, moral and spiritual hfe. But the work itself will develope the 
author's views on this subject more fully ; and for some parts of it more 
particularly important in this connexion the reader is referred to die 29th 
note and the references there made. The 50th note, and the 6th and 7th 
Essays of the Friend, vol. 3, will also aid in the more full undei-standhig 
of the whole subject of this note. — Am. En.] 



254 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

[4] p. 4. 
Quod stat suhtusy that whicli stands beneath^ and (as it were) supports, tlie 
appearance. In a language like ours, where so many words are derived, 
from other languages, there are few modes of instruction more useful or 
more amusing tlimi that of accustoming young people to seek for tlie ety- 
mology, or primary meaning, of the words they use. There are casee, 
in which more knowledge of more value may be conveyed by the history 
of a ivord, than by the history of a campaign. 

[5] p: 5. 

I am not ashamed to confess that I dislike the frequent use of the word 
virtue instead of righteousness, in the pulpit : and that in prayer or preach- 
ing before a Cluistian community, it sounds too much hke Pagan Phi- 
losojjhy. The passage in St. Peter's epistle, is the only scripture authority 
that can be pretended for its use, and I think it riglit, therefore, to notice, 
that it rests either on an oversight of the translators, or on a change in tlie 
meaning of tlie word ehice their time. 

[6] p. 5. 

The effects of a zealous ministry on the intellects and acquirements of 
the labouring classes are not only attested by Baxter, and the Presbyterian 
divines, but admitted by Bishop Burnet, who, during his mission in the 
west of Scotland, was "amazed to find a poor commonalty so able to ar- 
gue," &c. But we need not go to a sister Church for proof or example. 
The diffiision of light and knowledge through this kingdom, by the exer- 
tions of the liishops and clergy, by Episcopalians and Puritans, from Ed- 
ward VI. to the restoration, was as wonderful as it is praiseworthy, and 
may be justly placed among the most remarkable facts of histoiy. 

[The folio whig extract from the Autliors second Lay Sermon, p. 88 — ^91, 
may suggest some useful/eflections respecting tlie difference between tlie 
religious character of the age here refeiTcd to, and tliat of our own. — Am. 
Ed.] 

"As my first presumptive proof of a difference (I might almost have 
said, of a contrast) between the religious character of the period since the 
Revolution, and that of the period fiom the accession of Edward the Sixth 
to the abdication of the second James, I refer to the Sermons and to the 
theological Works generally, of the latter period. It is my fiill conviction, 
that in any half dozen Sermons of Dr. Donne, or Jeremy Taylor, there 
are more thouglits, more facts and images, more excitements to inquiry 
and intellectual effort, than arc presented to the congregations of the pro- 
sent day in as many churches or meetings during twice as many months. 
Yet both these were the most popular preacJiers of their times, were heard 
with enthusiasm by crowded and promiscuous Audiences, and the effect 



NOTES. 20b 

produced by their eloquence was held in reverential and aiTectionate re- 
membrance by many attendants on their ministry, who, like the pious Isaac 
Walton, were not themselves men of learning or education. In addition 
to this fact, think hkewise on the large and numerous editions of massy, 
closely printed folios : the impressions so lai'ge and the editions so numer- 
ous, that all the industry of destruction for the last hundred years has but 
of late sufficed to make them rare. From the long list select those works 
alone, which we know to have been the most cun-ent and favorite works 
of their day : and of these again no more than may well be supposed to 
have had a place in the scantiest libraries, or perhaps with the Bible and 
Common Prayer Book to have formed the library of their owner. Yet on 
the single shelf so filled we should find almost every possible question, 
that could interest or instioict a reader whose whole heait was in his reli- 
gion, discussed with a command of intellect that seems to exhaust all tlie 
learning and logic, all the historical and moral relations, of each several 
subject The veiy length of the discoui-ses, with which these "rich souls 
of wit and knowledge" fixed the eyes, ears, and hearts of their crowded 
congregations, are a source of wonder now-a-days, and (we may add) of 
self-congratulation, to many a sober Christian, who forgets with what de- 
light he himself has listened to a two hour's harangue on a Loan or Tax, 
or at the trial of some remarkable cause or culprit. The transfer of the 
interest makes and explauis the whole diflference. For though much may 
be fairly charged on the revolution in the mode of preaching as well as 
in the matter, since the fresh morning and fervent noon of the Reforma- 
tion, when tliere was no need to visit the conventicles of fanaticism in or- 
der to 

See God's ambassador in tlie pulpit stand. 

Where they could take notes fi'om his Look and Ileind ; 

And from his speakmg action bear away 

More sermon than our preachers used to say ; 

yet this too must be referred to the same change in the habits of men's 
minds, a change that involves both the shepherd and the flock : though 
like many other Effects^ it tends to reproduce and strengthen its own 
cause." 

[7] p. 7. 

The following sonnet was extracted by mo from Herbert's Temple, in a 
work long since out of print, for the purity of the language and the fiilncss 
of the sense. But I shall be excused, I trust, in repeating it here for higlier 
merits and with higher purpose?, as a forcible comment on the words in 
the text. 



256 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Graces vouchsafed in a Christian Land. 

Lord ! with what care hast thou begut us round ! 
Parents first season us. Then sclioohnastera 
Deliver us to laws. They send us bound 
To rules of reason. Holy messengers ; 
Pulpits and Sundays ; sorrow dogging sin ; 
Afflictions sorted; anguish of all sizes; 
Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in ! 
J)il)les laid ojjen ; millions of surprises ; 
Blessings beforehand ; ties of giatefulncsa ; 
The sound of glory ringing in our eai-s : 
Without, our shame ; within, our consciences ; 
Angels and gi'ace ; eternal hopes and feai*s ! 
Yet all these fences, and their whole array, 
One cmuiing bosom sin blows quite away. 

[8] p. 9. 

See the epistle of St. James, c. i. v. 26, 27. where, in the authorized 
version, the Greek word ^(;»;cx«j« is falsely rendered rdif^ion: whether 
by mistake of the translator, or from the intended sense having become 
obsolete, I cannot decide. At all events, for the English reader of our 
times it has the effect of an eri'oneous translation. It ndt only obscures 
the connexion of the passage, and weakens the pecuhar force and subhmi- 
ty of the thought, rendering it comparatively flat and trivial, ahnost indeed 
tautological, but has occasioned tliis particular verse to be perverted ijuo 
a support of a veiy dangerous error ; and the whole epistle to be consid- 
ered as a set-off against tlie epistles and declarations of St. Paul, instead 
of (what in fact it is ), a masterly comment and confirmation of the same. 
I need not inform the religious reader, that James, c. i. v. 27. is the fiivour- 
ite text and most boasted authority of those divines who represent the Re- 
deemer of the world as little more than a moral reformer, and the Chris- 
tian faith as a code of ethics, differing from the moral system of Moses and 
the prophets by an additional motive ; or rather, by the additional strengtii 
and clearness wliich the historical faet of the resurrection has given to the 
same motive. 

[9] p. 10. 

The Greek word f/f > fro, unites in itself the two senses of began to exist 
and ivas made to exist. It exemplifies the force of the middle voice, in dis- 
tinction from the verb reflex. In answer to a note on John i. 2. in the uni- 
tarian version of the New^ Testament, I think it worth noticing, that the 
same word is used in the very same sense by Aristophanes in that famous 
parody on the cosmogonies of the Mythic poets, or the creation of the 



NOTES. 



257 



finite, as delivered, or supposed to be delivered, in the Cabiric or Sanio- 
thraciaii mysteries, in the Comedy of tlie Birds. 

■' lyirex* OvQavog i2x«avo? re 

Kai rt}. 

[10] p. 10. 
James C. i. v. 6 Ss naQay.ml-ag bic rouovri?.ttov rov rr,g tltv^iQictc. The Greek 
word, parakiipsas, signifies the incurvation or bending of the body in the 
act of looking doivn into ; as, for instance, in the endeavor to see the re- 
flected image of a star in the water at the bottom of a well. A 
more happy or forcible word could not have been chosen to express the 
nature and ultimate object of reflection, and to enforce the necessity of it, 
in order to discover the living fountain and spring-head of the evidence of 
the Christian faith in the behever himself, and at the same time to point 
out the seat and region, where alone it is to be found. Quantum sumus, 
scvnius. That which we find within ourselves, which is more than our- 
selves, and yet the ground of whatever is good and pennanent therein, is 
the substance and life of all other knowledge. 

N. B. The Famihsts of the sixteenth century, and similar enthusiasts 
of later date, overlooked the essential point, that it was a laiv^ and a law 
that involved its own end (teAoc), a perfect law {cunog) or law that perfects 
or completes itself; and therefore, its obhgations are called, in reference to 
human statutes, imperfect duties, i. e. incoercible from without. They 
overlooked that it was a law that portions out {Nouog from vsfiw to allots or 
make division of) to each man the sphere and hmits, within which it is to 
be exercised— which as St. Peter notices of certain profound passsages in 
the writings of St Paul, (2 Pet. c. iii. v. 16.) oi auudug xat agr,^ixrot gQs^'/.naiv, 
us y-ui rag Aoi/cctg ynaifcig, nnog rtjv tdiocv avrwv a.rwXtiar. 

[11] p. 11. 

In accordance with a precedmg remaik, on the use of etymology, in dis- 
ciplining the youtliful mind to thoughtful habits, and as consistent with the 
title of this work, 'Aids to Reflection,' I shall oflfer no apology for the fol- 
lowing and similar notes : 

Aphorism, determinate position, from the Greek apo, from ; and horizem, 
to bound, or hmit ; whence our horizon. — In order to get the full sense of 
a word, we should fii-st present to our mmds the visual image that foniis 
its primaiy meaning. Draw lines of different colours roimd the diflferent 
counties of England, and then cut out each separately, as in the common 
play-maps that children take to pieces and put together— so that each dis- 
trict can be contemplated apart from the rest, as a whole in itself. This 
twofold act of circumscribing, and detaching, when it i» exerted by the 

33 



258 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

niind on subjects of reflection and reason, is to aphorize j and the reeult an 
aphorism. 

[12] p. 11. 

To KorjoY Stj]Q};xaaiv «i$ no?.?.o)r 0ton- iStoTtjrag. — Damosc. de Myst. Egypt, l. 

€. They divided the intelligible into many and several individualities. 

[13] p. 11. 

From &iQfOiCj a wailful raising into public notice, an uplifting (for display) 
of any particular opinion differing from the estabhshed behef of the church 
at large, and making it a gi'ound of schism, i. e. division, from schizein, to 
cut off-— whence our " scissars" is supposed to have been derived. 

[14] p. 11. 

I mean tliese words in their large and philosophic sense in relation to 
the spirit^ or originating temper and tendency, and not to any one mode un- 
der which, or to any one class, in or by which, it may be displayed. A sedi- 
tious spirit may, (it is possible, though not probable) exist in the council- 
chamber of a palace as strongly as in a mob in Palace- Yard ; and a sec- 
tarian spirit in a cathedral, no less than in a conventicle. 

[15] p. 11. 

Whereas Christ's other disciples had a breeding under him, St. Paul was 
bom an apostle ; not cai-ved out, as the rest, by degiees and in course of 
time, but a fusHe apostle, an apostle poured out and cast in a mould. As 
Adam was a perfect man in an instant, so was St. Paul a perfect Christian. 
The same spirit was the lightning that melted, and the mould that received 
and shaped him. — Donne's Sermons — quoted from memory. 

[1&] p. 12. 

From the Latin, convertere — i. e. by an act of the will to turn towards 
the true pole, at the same time (for this is the force of the prepositive con) 
that the undei-standing is convinced and made aware of its existence and 
direction* 

[17] p. 12. 

The following extract from Leighton's Theological Lectures, sect. II. 
cannot be introduced more to the purpose than as a comment on this sen- 
tence : 

*The human mind, however stunned and weakened by the fall, still re- 
tains some faint idea of the good it has lost ; a kind of languid sense of its 
misery and indigence, with affections suitable to these obscure notions. 



NOTES 



259 



This at least is beyond all doubt and indisputable, that all men wish well 
ID themselves ; nor can the mind divest itself of this propensity, witliout 
divesting itself of its being. This is what tlie schoolmen mean when in 
their manner of expfession they say, that 'the will {mem. voluntas, not ar- 
bitrium) is carried towards happiness not simply as loill, but as nature.^ ' 

I v^enture to remark that this position, if not more ccHawly would be 
more evidently true, if histead of beatitudo, the word indolentia,{ t, e. free- 
dom from pain, negative happiness) had been used. But this depends on 
the exact meaning attached to the term self, of which more in another 
place. One conclusion, however, follows inevitably from the preceding 
position, viz. that this propensity can never be legitimately made the prin- 
ciple of morality, even because it is no pait or appurtenance of the moral 
will ; and because the proper object of the moral principle is to limit and 
control this propensity, and to determine in what it may be, and in what 
it onght to be, gi-atitied ; while it is the business of philosophy to instruct 
the understanding, and the office of religion to convince the whole man, 
that otherwise than as a regulated, and of course therefore a svbordinale, 
end, this propensity, mnate mid inalienable though it be, can never be re- 
ahzed or fulfilled. Tr,v Ato.TOUuv nodyi ru ao:ia~frai ^ ©fQttnaiv(c, 

[18] p. 14. 

Logos in Greek signifies an intelligible ivord as distinguished from l>i;tu<^ 
a flowing or articulate sound ; and it likewise signifies Vie understanding, in 
distinction from n«5 (the pure reason ) in one direction, and from aioHr^oig 
(tlie sense) in tlie other. 

[19] p. 15. 

It is worthy of observation, and may furnish a fruitful 8ul)ject for future 
reflection, how nearly this scriptural division coincides with tlie Platonic, 
which, commencing with the prudential, or the habit of act and purpose 
proceeding fi-om enlightened self-interest, [qui animi imperio, corjioris 
servitio, reruni auxilio, in })roprium sui commodum et sibi providus utitur, 
hunc esse pi-udentem statuimus], ascends to the moral, t. e. to the purifying 
and remedial virtues ; and seeks its summit in the imitation of the Di\'ine 
nature. In this last division, answering to that which we have called the 
Spiritual, Plato includes all those inward acts and aspirations, waitings, and 
watchings, which have a growtli in godDkeness for their immediate pur- 
pose, and the union of the human soul with the Supreme Good as their 
ultimate object. Nor was it altogether ^vithout grounds that several of 
the Fathers ventured to believe that Plato had some dim conception of 
the necessity of a DiAine 3Iediator, whether through some indistinct echo 
of the patriarchal faith, or some rays of light refi"acted froHi the He- 
brew prophets through a Phoenician medium (to which he may possi- 



260 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

bly have referred in his phrase, ^eoTiaQadoTog ao(pta, tlie wisdom dehvered 
from God,) or by his own sense of tlie mysterious contradiction in human 
natiu'e between the will and the reason, the natural appetences and the no 
less umate law of conscience {Romaiis 11. 14. 15.) we shall m vahi attempt 
to determine. It is not impossible tliat all three may have co-operated in 
partially unveiling these awful truths to this plank from the wreck of pai- 
adise thrown on the shores of idolatrous Greece, to tins Divine Philoso- 
pher, 

Che in quella schiera and6 piu presso al segno 
Al qual aggiunge, a chi dal cielo e dato. 

Petrarchf Dd Triunfo deUa Fama, Cap. IIL I. 5, 6. 

[20] p. 18. 
Apud Ciceroncni et Platonem, aUosque ejusmodi scriptores, multa sunt 
acut6 dicta, et leniter calentia, sed in iis omnibus hoc non invenio, Veniic 
ad mcy i&c. [Matt. vii. 28.] 

[21] p. 19. 

<f>£i; Tt T«Tu)»' jjfc^utt iiiitovavP.a^otg, 

[22] p. 21. 

(The reference to tliia note was accidentally omitted at the end of Aph- 
orism 6th.) 

[A few remarks have been made in the Introduction and in the 3d note 
respecting the peculiarities of Coleridge's language ; but so much has been 
said by many, with whom I have had occasion to convei-se, respecting his 
faults in this particular, that I would gladly induce the reader's of tliis work 
to give a more special attention to his own views of propriety in tlie use of 
language, as exliibitedin the Aphorisms, with whicli this note is comiected, 
and in other passages refeiTed to below. — My own opinion is, that no wri- 
ter in the language, with whose works I have been acquainted, uses worda 
with more ^ precision, or adlieres more strictly to the fixed and permanent 
laws of language. No one writes with a more habitual and present appre- 
hension of the precise import of every term, which he employs, or more 
seldom gives his own intellect or that of his reader the indulgence of 
vague and general expressions. The faults of his language, if faults they 
1)6, are such as might be expected from one, — who has been accustomed to 
think witli unsparing effort, to mark with keen and philosophical discrimi- 
nation tlie differences of tilings, — who is at the same time familiar witli the 
powers of other and better languages, and with the distinctions of thought, 
which they express, and who, knowing the full powers of his own, is de- 
termined to exhaust them in recording the results of his anal ysis, and giv- 



NOTES. 261 

ing expression to the subtlest forms of thought. — In most cases, wliere 
his use of language may at first seem wholly unauthorized, it will bo 
found, that he has derived it from those profound thinkers and unrival- 
led masters of language, the great English Pliilosophers and Divines of 
the 17th Century. Now, I ask, is he not right in recuning to them and 
recalling then* language, if what he beheves be true, that aside from the 
nomenclature of the sciences, the interests of the language at large fall 
under the special guardiEUiship of logic and rational psychology, and that 
from the revolution downward these have been falling into neglect or dis- 
repute ; that the so called common language of the day, including even that 
of our popular metaphysics, is but the language of the market, too vague 
and ambiguous to satisfy a mind, that would think and reason in precise 
and steadtlist terms. If this be true, and if, as he also beheves, the great 
and leaduig principles of pliilosophy adopted in that age, and as it were 
incorporated in the language of its disthiguished writers, were far more 
rational and spiritual than tliose, wliich now prevail, I see not how ho 
could adopt a less offensive or a simpler method for recallmg theu' philoso- 
phy, tlian to recall and explain their language. The only way to under- 
stand their philosophy or his, is by understanding the tenns, in which it is 
taught, and till we do both, we are not competent to judge between his 
views and those, which are now so popular among us. If his philosoph- 
ical or theological views be found false, or absurd, let them be rejected, or 
if the metaphysical distinctions, on which he insists, can be shown to be 
idle and fruitless, let them be treated as they deserve ; but no one can pro- 
nomice judgment upon them without at least a serious effort to understand 
them. His writings, moreover, are now acquiring too much authority and 
influence among men of sound and sober thinkmg to be treated with neg- 
lect, and wherever his philosophical views are adopted, his use of language 
will be found rational and skilfully adapted to the circumstances of the 
case. But I have introduced these remarks not with a view to discuss the 
subject myself so much as to engage the special and candid attention of 
the reader to the author's own remarks, which will be found m different 
parts of the work, but especially in the second letter of a selection fi-om 
his Literaiy Correspondence republished at the end of the Volume. — ^Am. 
Ed.] 

[23] p. 25. 

[The relation of prudence to morality, and tlie essential difference in 
kind between the latvs of duty, existing a priori in the reason and con- 
science, and the maxims of interest, formed by the understanding from the 
results of experience, are exhibited more at large in the Aphorisms, which 
immediately follow, and the Reflections concerning morality in the next 
section of the work. It may not be improper, however, here to forewarn 
the reader, that in order to a clear apprehension of the author's views oi' 



S62 AIDS TO REFLECTION, 

this subject in all tlieir important bearings, and also of tlie relation of mo- 
rality to religious principle and faith, he must first have some knowledge of 
his metaphysical system and of the meanings, with which he has connect- 
ed the words reason, understanding, free-ioUl, conscience, and other leading 
terms. It will be found, that he employs these in a precise, exclusive, and 
steadfast sense, not only in this, but in all his works, and 1 may add, that 
when these are understood, and their meaning kept distinctly before the 
mhid in reading his writings, the chief causes oftebscurity will be remo- 
ved. But it would be anticipating too much, ana indeed would not be 
possible in the compass of a note, to explain terms, which may be said to 
include his whole system. I have spoken of them here with a view to di- 
rect the careful attention of the reader to the manner in which they are 
used throughout the work, and to the explanation given by the author both 
in the text and in the extracts from his other works, which will be added 
for the same purpose of illustration. When these are miderstood, the rea- 
der will see their application to the whole subject of the philosophy of 
morals, — the relation of moral rectitude to the understanding, the reason, 
the conscience, and the free-^vill, — and the nature of the difference between 
the principles of moral obligation taught here, and those generally recei- 
ved among us, whether from Paley or Brown. In the mean time the fol- 
lowing remarks upon the system of Dr. Paley, and the discussion of 
his doctrine of general consequences will less require an acquaintance with 
the author's general system, to render them intelligible, and fi'om the gi-eat 
importance of the subject, and the value of the extracts, I hope will not 
be thought out of place in this work. The first extract is from Coleridge's 
second Lay Sermon, p. 69 — 71, note. 

"In the magnitude and awfulness of its objects alone, the late Dr. Paley, 
by a use of terms altogether arbitrary, places the distinction between Pru- 
dence and vutue, the former being self-love in its application to the sum of 
pain and pleasure that is likely to result to us, as the consequence of our 
actions, in the present hfe only ; while the latter is the same self-love, that 
together with the present consequences of our actions, takes in likewise 
the more important enjoyments or sufferings which, according as we obey 
or disobey His known commands, God has promised to bestow, or threat- 
ened to inflict, on us in the hfe to come. According to this writer, it be- 
comes the duty of a rational free agent (it would be more pertinent to say, 
of a sentient animal capable of Forecast) to reduce his WiU to an habitual 
coincidence vnth his Reason, on no other ground, but because he believes 
that God is able and determined either to gratify or to torment hun. Thus, 
the great principle of the Gospel, that we are bound to love our neighbors 
as omselves and God above all, must, if translated mto a consistency with 
this theory of enlightened Self-love, run thus : On the ground of our fear 
ofv torment and our expectation of pleasure from an infinitely powerful 
Being, we are under a prudential obligation of acting towards our neigh- 



NOTES. 



263 



bours as if we loved them equally with ourselves ; but ultimately and in 
very truth to lovo oui-selves only. .\iid this is the Work, this the System 
of moral and political Philosophy cited as highest authority in our Senate 
and Courts of Judicature ! And (still worse !) this is the Text-Book for the 
moral Lectures at one of our Universities, justly the most celebrated for 
scientific ardor and manly thinking. 'Tis not widiout a pang of fihal soitow 
that the Writer makes this acknowledgement, which nothing could have 
extorted from him but the strongest conviction of the mischievous and de- 
basing tendencies of that wide-spread system, in which the Works of Dr. 
Paley (his Sermons excepted) act not the less pernicious part, because the 
most decorous and plausible. The fallacious sophistry of the grounding 
principle in this whole system has been detected by Des Cartes, and Bish- 
op Butler : and of late years, with great ability and originality, by Mr. W. 
Hazlitt." 

[The following comprises nearly all of the 11th Essay in the second Vol- 
ume of the Friend :] 

"The doctrine of General Consequences, as the chief and best crite- 
rion of the right or wrong of particular actions, I conceive to be neither 
tenable in reason nor safe in practice : and the following are the grounds 
of my opinion. 

First ; this criterion is purely m/coZ, and, so far possesses no advantages over 
the former systems of morality : while it labours under defects, with wliiph 
those are not justly chargeable. It is ideal : for it depends on, and must 
vary with, the notions of tlie individual, who in order to determine the na- 
ture of an action is to make the calculation of its general consequences. 
Here, as in all other calculation, the result depends on that faculty of the 
soul in tlie degi-ees of which men most vary from each other, and which 
is itself most affected by accidental advantages or disadvantages of educa- 
tion, natural talent, and acquired knowledge — the faculty, I mean, of fore- 
sight and systematic comprehension. But surely morahty, which is of 
equal importance to all men, ought to be grounded, if possible, in that part 
of our nature which in all men may and ought to be the same : in the 
conscience and the common sense. Secondly : this criterion confounds 
morality witli law ; and when the author adds, that in all probability the 
divine Justice will be regulated m the final judgment by a similar rule, he 
draws away the attention from the imll, that is, from the inward motives 
and impulses which constitute the essence of morcdity, to the outward act : 
and thus changes the virtue commanded by the gospel into the mere le- 
gality, which was to be enhvenedby it. One of the most persuasive, if not 
one of the strongest, arguments for a future state, rests on the behef, that 
although by the necessity of things our outward and temixjral welfare nuist 
be regulated by our outward actions, which alone can be the objects and 
guides of human law, there must yet needs come a juster and more ap- 
propriate sentence hereafter; in which our intentions will be considered. 



264 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

and our happiness and misery made to accord ^vith the grounds of our 
actions. Oiu* fellow-creatures can only judge what we are by what we 
do ; but in the eye of our Maker what we do is of no woitli, except as it 
flows from what we are. Though the fig-tree should produce no visible 
fruit, yet if the hving sap is in it; and if it has struggled to put forth buds 
and blossoms, which have been prevented from maturing by inevitable 
contingencies of tempests or untimely fi-osts, the virtuous sap will be ac- 
counted as fruit : and the curse of barrenness will light on many a tree, 
from the boughs of which hundreds have been satisfied, because the om- 
niscient judge Imows that the fruits were threaded to the boughs artificial- 
ly by the outward working of base fear and selfish hopes, and were nei- 
ther nourished by the love of God or of man, nor grew out of the gi*ace8 
engrafl;ed on the stock by rehgion. This is not, indeed, aU tliat is meant 
in the apostle's use of the word, faith, as the sole principle of justifica- 
tion, but it is included in his meaning and forms an essential part of it — 
and I can conceive nothing more gi-oundless, than the alann, that this doc- 
trine may be prejudicial to outward utility and active well-doing. To sup- 
pose that a man should cease to be beneficent by becoming benevolent, seems 
to me scarcely less absurd, than to feai* that a fire may prevent heat, or 
that a perennial fountain may prove the occasion of drought. Just and 
generous actions may proceed from bad motives, and both may, and ofl;en 
do, originate in parts and as it were fragments of our nature. A lascivious 
man may sacrifice half his estate to rescue his fiiend from prison, for he 
is constitutionally sympathetic, and the better part of his nature happened 
to be uppermost. The same man shall afl;envards exert the same disre- 
gard of money in an attempt to seduce that friend's wife or daughter. But 
faith is a total act of the soul : it is the tvhole state of the mind, or it is not 
at all ! and in this consists its power, as well as its exclusiv-e worth. 

This subject is of such immense importance to the welfare of all men, 
and the understanding of it to the present tranquillity of many thousands 
at this time and in this countiy, that should there be one only of all my 
Readers, who should receive conviction or an additional light fi'om what is 
here written, I dare hope that a great majority of the rest would in consid- 
eration of that solitaiy eflfect think these pai-agraphs neither wlioUy unmter- 
esting or altogether without value. For this cause I will endeavour so to 
explain this principle, that it may be intelligible to the simplest capacity. 
The apostle tells those who would substitute obedience for faith (addres- 
sing the man as obedience personified) ^^Know thai thou bearesi not the Root 
bid the ROOT thee^'' — a sentence which, methinks, should have rendered 
all disputes concerning faith and good works uni)ossible among those who 
profess to take the Scriptures for tlieir guide. It would appear incredible, 
if the fact were not notorious, that two sects should ground and justify 
their opposition to each other, the one on the words of the apostle, that 
we are justified by faith, i. e. the inward and absolute gi'ound of our ac- 



NOTES. 2G5 

tloos ; and thjei other oh the declaration of Clirist, that he will judge us ac- 
cording to tJtir atetions. As if an action conld be either good or bad dis- 
joined from its principle ! as if it could be, in tlie christian and only prop- 
er sense of the word, an action at all, and not rather a mechanic series of 
lucky or unlucky motions! Yet it may well be worth the while to sliew 
the beamy and harmony of tiiese twin tiutlis, or mther of this one gi-eat 
titilih considered in its two principal bearings. God will judge each man 
before ali hiefn: conseijuently lie will judge us relatively to man. But 
mhnknbws" i^iot the heart of man ; scarcely does any one know Ms own.. 
There ;must therefore be outward and visible signs, by which men may 
be able fco judge of the inward state: and tliereby justify the Avays of 
God to tlieir own spirits, hi the reward or punishment of tlieuKselves and 
their fellow-men. Now good worivs are these signs, and as such become 
necessary. In short there are two parties^ Grod and the human race : and 
both -are to be Scitisfied ! first, God, who seeth the i-oot and knoweth tho 
heart : therefoi-e there must be taith, or the entire and absolute principle. 
Tlien m«w, who can jiulge only by the fruits; therefore that faith must 
bear fruits of righteousness, that principle must inanifesl itself by actions. 
But that which God sees, Ihat alone justifies ! What man sees^ does in 
this life shew that the justifying principle may be the root of the thing 
seen ; but in the final judgment the acceptance of these actions will shew, 
tliat this principle actually was the rdot. In tliis world a good life is a 
presumption of Si good man : his viituous actions are the only possible, though 
still ambiguous, manifestations of his virtue : but the absence of a good 
life is not only a presumption, but a proof of the contmry, as long as it con- 
thiues. Good works may exist ivithoiit saving piinciples, and therefore 
canimt contain in themselves tlie piinciple of salvation ; but saving prin- 
ciples never did, never can, exist without good works. On a subject of 
such infinite importance, I have feared prolixity less than obscurity. Men 
often talk againsi; faith, and make strange monsters in tlieir imagination of 
those who ja-ofess to abide by the words of the Apostle^ interpreted liter- 
ally : and yet in their ordinary feelings they themselves judge and act by a 
similar prmeiple. For what is love without kmd offices, wherever they 
are possible ? (and they are always possible, if not by actions connnonly so 
called,''yet by kind words, by kind looks ; and, where even these are out 
of our power, by kind thoughts and fei-vent prayers !) yet what noble mind 
would not be oflfended, if he were supposed to value the serviceable oflices 
equally vnth the love that produced them : or if he were thought to value 
the love for the sake of the services, and not the services for the sake of 
the love ? 

I return to the question of general consequences, considered as tlie cri- 
terion of moral actions. The admii*er of Paley's System is required to 
suspend for a short time the objection, which, I doubt not, he has already 
made, that general consequences are stated by Paley as tho criterioa of 

34 



266 AIDS TO RSFtECTION. 

the action, not of tlie agent, I will endeavor to satisfy.' Him 'oh this point; 
when I have completed my present chain of argument, i It has been 
shewn, that this criterion is no less ideal than that of anijf former system : 
that is, it is no less incapable of receiving any external' experiiftental proofs 
compulsoiy on the understaiidings of all men, siich as the criteria exhibk-»i 
ed in chemistry. Yet, milike the elder Systems of Morality, it remains in 
the world of the senses, without deriving any evidence therefrom. ;The 
agent's mind is compelled to go out of itself in order to bring back conjec- 
tures, the probability of which will vary with the shrewdness of the indi- 
vidual. But this criterion is not only ideal: it is likewise- imaginary, i If 
we beheve m a scheme of Providence, all actions alike^vork lor ^ood. 
There is not the least ground for su})posing tliat tlie crimes of Nero wcife 
less instrumental in biinging about our present advanUiges, than the vir-i 
tues of the Antonines. Lastly ;. the criterion is either nugatory or false. 
It is demonstrated, that the only real consequences cannot be meant 
The individual is to imagine what the general consequences wonld be, all 
other things remaining the same, if all men were to act as he is about tc» 
act I scarcely need remind the reader, what a source of self delusioil 
and sophistiy is here opened to a mind in a state of temptation. WiH it 
not say to itself, I know that all men will not act so : and the immediate 
good consequences, which I shall obtiin, are real while the bad conse- 
quences are imaginary and improbable ? When tlie foundations of mo- 
rality have once been laid in outward consequences, it will be in vain to 
recall to tlie mmd, what the consequences would be, were all men to rea- 
son in the same way : for the very excuse of this mind to itself is, that 
neitlier its action nor its reasoning is likely to have any consequences at 
all, its immediate object excepted. But suppose the mind in its sanest 
state. How can it possibly form a notion of the nature of an action con- 
sidered as indefinitely multiplied, unless it has previously a distinct notion 
of the nature of the single action itself, which is the multiplicand ? If I 
conceive a crown multiphed a hundred fold, the single crown enables me 
to miderstand what a hundred crowns are ; but how can the notion hun- 
dred teach me what a crown is ? For the crown substitute X. Y. or abra- 
cadabra, and my imagination may multiply it to infinity, yet remain as 
much at a loss as before. But if there be any means of ascertaining the 
action in and for itself, what further do we want ? Would we give Ught 
to the sun, or look at our own fingers through a telescope ? The nature 
of every action is determined by all its circumstances ; alter the circum- 
stances and a similar set of motions may be repeated, but they are no 
longer the same or similar action. What would a surgeon say, if he were 
advised not to cut off a limb, because if all men were to do the same, 
the consequences would be dreadful? Would not his answer be — 
" Whoever does the same under the same circumstances, and with tlie 
same motives, will do right ; but if the circumstances and motives are 



NOTES. 



267 



different,. what have I to do witii it 7" I confess myself unable to divino 
any possiWe usie, or even meaning, in this doctrine of general consequen- 
ces, unless it be^ that in all our actions we are bound to consider the ef- 
fect of our example, and to guard, as much as possible, against the ha- 
zard of their being misunderstood. I will not slaughter a lamb, or drown 
a litter of kittens in the presence of my child of four years old, because 
the child cannot understand my action, but wiU understand that his Fa- 
ther has inflicted pain, and taken away life from beings that had never of- 
fei^ded him. All this is true, and no man in his senses ever thought oth- 
^i-Wise. But methuiks it is strange to state that as a criterion of morality, 
which is no more than an accessaiy aggravation of an action bad in its own 
nature, or a ground of caution as to the mode and time in wliich we are 
to do or suspend what is in itself good or innocent. 

Tl;e duty of setting a good example is no doubt a most imix>rtant duty ; 
but the. example is good or bad, necessary or mmecessary, according as the 
action may be, which has a chance of being imitated. I once knew a 
gmall, but (in outward circumstances at least) respectable congregation, 
four-fiftlis of whom professed that tliey went to church entirely for the 
example's sake ; in other words to cheat each other and act a common 
lie ! These rational Christians had not considered, that example may en- 
crease the good or evil of an action, but can never constitute either. If it 
was a foolisli thing to kneel when they were not inwardly praying, or to sit 
and hsten to a discourse of which they believed little and cared uotliing, 
they were settuig a foohsh example. Persons in their respectable circum- 
stances do not tliink it necessary to clean shoes, Uiat by their example they 
may encourage the shoe-black in continuing his occupation : and -Christi- 
anity does not tliink so memily of herself as to fear tliat the poor and af- 
flicted will be ^ whit the less pious, tliough they should see reason to be- 
lieve that tliose, who possessed the good things of tlie present life, were 
determined to leave aU the blessings of the future for their more humble 
mferiors. If I have spoken witli bitterness, let it be recollected that my 
subject Is hy}x>crisy. 

It is Ukewise fit, that in all our actions we should have considered how 
far they ai*e likely to be misunderstood, and from su])erficial resemblances 
to be confounded with, and so appear to authorize, actions of a very differ- 
ent character. But if this caution be intended for a moral rule, the misun- 
derstanding must be such as might be made by persons who are neither 
very weak nor veiy wicked. The apparent resemblances between the 
good action we were about to do and the bad one which might possibly 
be done in mistaken imitation of it, must be obvious : or that wliich makes 
them essentially different, must be subtle or recondite. For what^ is there 
which a wicked man blinded by his passions may not, and which a mad- 
man will not, misunderstand ? It is ridiculous to frame rules of morality with 
a view to those who are fit objects only for the physician or tlie mag^is- 
trate. 



368 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

The question may be tlms illustrated. At Florence there is an unfinished 
bust of Brutus, by Michael Angelo, under which a Cardinal wrote tlie fol- 
lowing distich : 

Duiii Briiti effigiem sculptor de marmore fiiixit, 
In menten^ sceleris venit, et abstinuit. 
Jhihe Sculptor toas forming the effigy of Brutus^ in marbley he recollected his 
act of guilt and refrained. 

An EngUsh Nobleman, indignant at this distich, wrote hnmediately under 
it the following : 

Brutum effinxisset sculptor, sed mente recursat 
Multa viri virtus : sistit et obstupuit. 
The Sculptor would have framed a Brutus, but Hie vast and manifold yiriue of 
the man flashed upon his thought : he stopped and remained in asto- 
nished admiration. 

Now which is the nobler and more moral sentiment, the Italian Cardi- 
nal's, or the English nobleman's ? The Cardinal would appeal to the doc- 
trine of general consequences, and pronounce the death of Csesar a mur- 
der, and Brutus an assassm. For (he would say) if one man may be al- 
lowed to kill another because he thinks him a tyrant, religious or political 
phrenzy may stamp the name of tyrant on the best of kings : regicide will 
be justified under the pretence of tyrannicide, and Brutus be quoted as au- 
thority for the Clements and Ravaillacs. From kings it may pass to gene- 
rals and statesmen, and from these to any man whom an enemy or enthu- 
siast may pronounce unfit to hve. Thus we may have a cobler of Messi- 
na in every city, and bravos in our streets as common as in those of Naples, 
with the name Brutus on their stilettos. 

The Englishman would commence his answer by commenting on the 
words "because he thivks him a tyrant" No ! he would reply, not because 
the patriot thinks him a tyrant ; but because he knows Iiim to be so, and 
knows liliewise, that the vilest of his slaves cannot deny the fact, tliat he 
has by violence raised himself above the laws of his country — ^because he 
knows that all good and wise men equally with himself abhor the fact! 
If there be no such state as that of being broad awalte, or no means of 
distinguishing it when it exists ; if because men sometimes dream that 
they are awake, it must follow that no man, when awake, can be sure that 
he is not dreaming ; if because an hypochondriac is positive that his legs 
are cylinders of glass, all other men are to learn modesty, and cease to be 
so positive that their legs are legs ; what possible advantage can your crite- 
rion of GENERAL CONSEQUENCES poscss ovcr any other rule of directiori'? 
If no man can be sure that what he thinks a robber witli a pistol at his 
breast demanding his pui-se, may not be a good friend enquiring after his 



NOTES. 269 

health ; or that a tymnt (the son of a cobler perhaps, who at the head of 
a regiment of perjured traitors, has driven the representatives of his coun- 
try out of the senate at the point of the bayonet, subverted the constitu- 
tion which had trusted, enriched, and honoured him, trampled on the laws 
which before God and Man he had sworn to obey, and finally raised him- 
self above all law) may not, in spite of his own and his neighbours' know- 
ledge of the contrary, be a laAvfiil king, who has received his power, how- 
ever disspotic it may be, from the kmgs his ancestoi-s, who exercises no 
other power than what had been submitted to for centuries, and been ac- 
knowledged as tlie law of tlie country ; on what ground can you possibly 
expect less fallibility, or a result more to be relied upon in the same man's 
calculation of your general consequences ? Would he, at least, find any 
difficulty in converting your criterion into an autliority for his act ? What 
should prevent a man, whose perceptions and judgements are so strangely 
distorted, from arguing, that nothing is more devoutly to be Avished for, as 
a general consequence, than tliat eveiy man, who by violence places him- 
self above the laws of his countiy, should in all ages and nations be con- 
sidered by mankind as placed by his own act out of the protection of law, 
and be ti'eated by tliem as any other noxious wild beast would be ? Do 
you think it necessary to try adders by a jury ? Do you hesitate to shoot a 
mad dog, because it is not in your power to have him first tried and con- 
demned at the Old Bailey ? On the other hand, what consequence can be 
conceived more detestable, tlian one which would set a bounty on the most 
enormous crime in human nature, and establish it as a law of religion and 
morality that the accomplishment of tlie most atrocious guilt invests tlie per- 
petrator with impunity, and rendei-s liis person forever sacred and mviola- 
ble ? For madmen and enthusiasts what avail your moral criterions ? But 
as to your Neapolitan Bravos, if the act of Brutus, who, " In pity to the general 
wrong of Rome, Sleio his best lover fcrr the good of Rome," authorized by the 
laws of his country, in manifest opposition to all selfish interests, in the 
face of tlie Senate, and instantly presenting himself and his cause fii*st to 
that Senate, and then to the assembled Commons, by tliem to stand acquit- 
ted or condemned — if such an act as this, with all its vast out-jutting cir- 
cumstances of distinction, can be confounded by any mind, not frantic, 
with the crime of a cowardly skulkmg assassin who hires out his dagger 
for a few crowns to gratify a hatred not his own, or even with the deed of 
that man who makes a compromise between his revenge and his coward- 
ice, and stabs in tlie dai'k the enemy whom he dared not meet in the open 
field or summon before the laws of his country — what actions can be so 
diflTerent that tliey may not be equally confounded ? The ambushed sol- 
dier must not fire his musquet, lest his example should be quoted by the 
villain who, to make sure of his booty, discharges his piece at the unsuspi- 
cious passenger from behind a hedge. The physician must not adminis- 
ter a solution of arsenic to the leprous, lest his example should be quoted 



270 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

by professional poisoners. If no distinction, full and satisfactory to Ui© 
conscience and common sense of mankinfi be afforded by the detestation 
and horror excited in all men, (even in the meanest and most vicious, if 
they are not wholly monsters) by the act of the assassin, contrasted with 
tlie fervent admiration felt by the good and wise in all ages when they 
mention the name of Brutus ; contrasted with the fact that the honour or 
disrespect witli which that name was spoken of, became an historic crite- 
rion of a noble or a base age ; and if it is in vain tliat our own hearts an- 
swer to tlie question of the Poet : 

"Is there among the adamantine spheres 
Wheeling unshaken through the boimdless void, 
Aught that with half such majest}' can fiU 
The human bosom, as when Brutus rose 
Refulgent from the stroke of Csesai-'s fate 
Amid the crowd of Patriots ; and his arm 
Aloft extending, like eternal Jove, 
When guilt brings down the thunder, callM aloud 
On Tully's name, and shook his crimson sword, 
And bade the Father of his Country, Hail ! 
For lo the Tyrant prostrate on the dust, 
And Rome again is free !" — 

If, I say, all this be fallacious and insufficient, can we have any finner 
reliance on a cold ideal calculation of imaginary general consequen- 
ces, which, if they were general, could not be consequences at all : for 
they would be effects of the frenzy or frenzied wickedness, which alone 
could confound actions so utterly dissimilar ? No ! (would the ennobled 
descendant of our Russels or Sidneys conclude) No ! Calunuiious bigot ! 
never yet did a human being become an assassin from his own or the gen- 
eral admiration of the hero Bmtus ; but I dard not wan*ant, that villains 
might not be encouraged in their trade of secret murder, by finding their 
own guilt attributed to the Roman patriot, and might not conclude, that if 
Brutus be no better than an assassin, an assassin can be no worse than 
Brutus. 

I request, that the preceding be not interpreted as my own judgment on 
tyrannicide. I think with Machiavel and with Spinosa, for many and 
weighty reasons assigned by those philosophers, that it is difficult to con- 
ceive a case, in which a good man would attempt tyrannicide, because it 
is difficult to conceive one, in which a wise man would recommend it. In 
a small state, included withm the walls of a single city, and where the ty- 
ramiy is maintained by foreign guards, it may be otherwise ) but in a na- 
tion or empire it is perhaps inconceivable, that the circumstances which 
made a tyranny possible, should not likewise render tlie removal of the 



NOTES. 271 

tyrant useless. The jfiatriot'a sword may cut off the Hydra's head ; but he 
possesses no brand to stanch the active corruption of the body, which is 
Sure to re-produce a successor. 

-f^'I must now in a few words answer the objection to the former part of 
tmy argument (for to that part only the objection appUes,) namely, that the 
doctrine of general consequences was stated as the criterion of the action, 
not of the agent. I might answer, that the author himself had in some 
measure justified me in not noticing this distinction liy holding forth the 
probability, that the Supreme Judge will proceed by the same rule. The 
agent may then safely be mcluded in the action, if both here and hereafter 
the action only and its general consequences will be attended to. But my 
main ground of justification is, that the distinction itself is merely logical, 
not real and vital. The character of the agent is determined by his view 
of the action : and that system of morality is alone true and suited to hu- 
man nature, which unites the intention and the motive, the warmth and 
the hght, in one and the same act of mind. This alone is worthy to be 
called a moral principle. Such a principle may be extracted, though not 
without difficulty and danger, fi-om the ore of the stoic philosophy ; but 
it is to be found unalloyed and entire in the Christian system, and is there 
called Faith." 

The system of Paley, I am aware, i^ not now so generally received in 
this country, as to call for the very special attention of the friends of truth ; 
yet many are still disposed to defend it, at least, with such sUght modifica- 
tions, as to show, that its radical defects are not perceived. Those, who 
reject it entirely, do so on different grounds fi-om those above presented, 
and for the most part adopt as a substitute the system of Brown, which, if 
there be any tnitli in the doctrines exhibited in this volume, is alike radi- 
cally erroneous. Both systems in fact have their origin in nearly the same 
general views of the human mind — ^\'iews, which preclude tlie existence 
of the reason and free-will, as these powers ai'e defined by Coleridge, and 
leave us only those powers of the understanding and of choice or selec- 
tion, which belong to us in common with the brutes. Whether it be pos- 
sible upon such a system of what is called the Philosophy of the human 
mind, the adherents of which, not only among professed Metaphysicians, 
but among Naturalists, and even Theologians, maintain in so many words, 
that we have no powers differing in kind from those, which belong to dogs 
and horses, whether, I say, it be possible upon such grounds of general 
philosophy to construct a rational system of morals, to account satisfactori- 
ly for the difference between regret and remorse, to explain the difference 
between things and persons, to show why we should not acknowledge the 
rights of brutes, and try them by a jury, and in general to justify the ways 
of God to man, remains yet a fair field for experiment. In the mean time 
the careful reader will find, if I mistake not, in the metaphysical views 
contained in this work materials for a moral system so much, more ration- 



272 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

al and satisfying, so much more consistent with our moral feelings and pur 
idea of the Divine Being, as will go far to sustain the trutli of tliese views 
themselves. I will barely remark farther, that the bearing of this work 
upon the ethical system of Brown will be sufficiently obvious in the sub- 
sequent parts of the volume, especially in the contradistinction tauglit to 
exist between nature and the will, and the relation, which, on this system^ 
moral rectitude holds to the will and to the reason.— Am. Editor.] 

[24] p. 28. 
Vieturos a^mus semper, nee vivimus unquani. 

[25] p. 29. 
Spes spem excipit, ambitionem ambitio, et miseriarum non quseritur 
finis, sed schema tantum mutatur. 

[26] p. 31. 
This paragraph is abridged fi-om the Watchman, No. IV. Mai-ch 25, 
1796; respecting which the inquisitive Reader may consult my "Literary 
Life." S. T. C. 

[27] p. 32. 
There sometimes occurs an apparent Play on worrls, which not only to 
the MoraUzer, but even to the philosophical Etymologist, appears more than 
a mere Play. Thus in the double sense of the word, become. I have 
known persons so anxious to have their Dress become them, so totus in iRo, 
as to convert it at length into their proper self, and thus actually to become 
the Dress. Such a one, (safehest spoken of by the neider Pronoun), I con- 
sider as but a suit of Ziye Finery. It is indifferent whether we say — It be- 
c&mes He, or, He becoines it. 

[38] p. 34. ,„, 

It might be a mean of preventing many unhappy Marriages, if the 
youth of both sexes had it early impressed on their minds, that Maniage 
contracted between Christians is a true and perfect Symbol or MystCTy ; 
that is, the actualizing Faith being supposed to exist in the Receivers, it 
is an outward Sign co-essential with that which it signifies, or a living Part 
of that, the whole of which it represents. Maniage therefore, in the 
Christian sense (Ephesians v. 22 — 33), as symbohcal of the imion of tlie 
Soul with Christ the Mediator, and with God through Christ, is perfectly 
a sacramental ordinance, and not retained by the Reformed Churches as 
one of THE Sacraments, for two reasons; fii-st, that the Sign is not disUnc- 
live of tlie Church of Christ, and the Ordinance not pecidiai* nor owing 
its origin to the Gospel Dispensation ; secondly, it is not of universal obli- 



NOTES. 



273 



gation, not a mefins of Grace enjoined on all Christians. In other and 
plainer words, Maniage does not contam in itself an open Profession of 
Christ, and it is not a Sacrament of the Chiv)-ch,hut only of certain Indi- 
vidual members of the Church. It is evident, however, that neither of 
these Reasons affect or diminish the religious nature and dedicative force 
of the marriage Vow, or detract from the solemnity of the Apostohc Dec- 
laration: This is a great Mystery. 

The interest, which the State has in the appropriation of one Woman to 
one Man, and the civil obligations therefrom resulting, form an altogether 
distinct consideration. When I meditate on the words of the Apos- 
tle, confirmed and illustrated as they are, by so many harmonies in 
the Spiritual Structure of our proper Humanity, (in the image of God, 
male and female created he the Man), and then reflect how little claim so 
large a number of legal cohabitations have to the name of Christian 
Marriages— I feel inclined to doubt, whether the plan of celebrating 
Marriages univei-sally by the civil magistrate, in the fii-st instance, and 
leaving the religious Covenant, and sacramental Pledge to the election of 
the Parties themselves, adopted during the Repubhc in England, and in 
our own times by the French Legislature, was not in f(Kt, whatever it 
might be in intention, reverential to Christianity. At all events, it was 
their own act and choice, if the Parties made bad worse by the profanation 
of a Gospel Mystery. 

[29] p. 44. 

Whatever is comprized in the Chain and Mechanism of Cause and 
Effect, of course necessitated, and having its necessity in some other thing, 
antecedent or concurrent — ^this is said to be Natural ; and the Aggregate 
and System of all such things is Nature. It is, therefore, a contradiction 
in terms to include in this the Free-will, of which the verbal definition is 
— that which originates an act or state of Being. In this sense therefore, 
which is the sense of St. Paul, and mdeed of the New Testament through- 
out, Spiritual and Supernatural are synonymous. 

[The Comment, to which this note is attached, exhibits in part the au- 
thor's views on certain subjects, which are felt and acknowledged to be of 
the utmost importance, and at the same time exceedingly difficult of expla- 
nation. Whether there be an essential difference between morahty and 
spiritual religion — ^the mode of transition from tlie one to the other — the 
contradistinguishing character of the will as spiritual and above nature — and 
the possibihty of such a communion and co-agency of the Divine spirit 
with our spirits, as shall transfonn them into the Divine image, consistently 
with the idea of a free will as foi-med by the reason, are undoubtedly sub- 
jects desei-ving and requiring tlie most serious and profound reflection. 
The manner, in which they are treated m this work, if I do not mistake, 

35 



274 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

will at least have the interest of novelty for most of its readers, and can 
hardly fail to give them more satisfaction, in regard to some points, than 
the authors generally resorted to among us on subjects of this sort. It will 
at once be obvious, that all these subjects are here presented to us in a far 
different point of view from that, in which they are and must be contem- 
{Jiated by the disciples of Locke, and those who, with Brown, deny to man 
any powers of will, which are riot subjected to the law of nature, and in- 
cluded in tbe mechanism of cause and effect. The difference in the views 
exhibited, it will be seen again, results from the same fundamental prin- 
ciples of philosophy, which I have referred to in former notes, and which 
it will be especially incumbent on the reader to understand in order to a 
fiill apprehension of the audior's meaning here. To anticipate the most 
important difficulties, likely to be felt by a reader unacquainted with the 
system, I will merely observe, what would not perhaps be learned distinct- 
ly from the previous parts of the work, that according to the author's views 
and use of language a fact may be above our undei-standings, which is not 
inconsistent with reason, and which reason requires us to believe ; it may 
be inconceivable under those conditions, which limit the powers of con- 
ception in the understanding, and yet its truth be discovered intuitively by 
tlie reason ; it may be irrepresentable under the forms of time and space, 
i. e. something, of which neither extension, nor place, nor the attiibutes of 
time, as before and afler, can be predicated, and yet its reality force itself up- 
on our conviction. The distinction between these powers, and the appropri- 
ate offices of each, are exhibited by the author in a subsequent part of the 
volume ; but if, for the present, what has now been said be admitted, and 
the definition of nature given in his note recognized, the meaning of the 
Comment will be sufficiently obvious, and its doctrines seen to be at least 
free from absurdity. 

But as the reader is now entering upon those views of the will as super- 
natural, and of the spiritual powers of man which constitute the ground 
work of the system, I cannot perhaps aid him more effectually than by re- 
ferring him, either for his present or fliture convenience, to those parts of 
the volume where they are most clearly stated. By comparing different 
passages together, one unacquainted with the system and the meaning of 
terms will gain more instruction than from any illustrations which I could 
ftimishv The following passages have occuiTed to me as having a more or 
less important connexion with the leading principles mentioned. It may 
not be expedient to anticipate the author's progress by reading tliem all in 
connexion with this Comment, but they may be compared at the reader's 
option. In the. text the passages wiU be found at pp. 87 — ^92, 102 — 105, 
132-134, 12^U5, 151—156, 160—163, 183—184, 19^-194, 205—206, 
211 — 213, 238 — 246. Among the notes, the most important in this connex- 
ion, are the 50th, 55th, 64th, 66th, 67th, 69th, and 78th. Some parts of the 
appendix, also, will be found to illustrate the author's views of these subjects. 



NOTES. 



275 



The following is inserted here from the Friend, vol. 3d, p. 166—168* 
"The word Nature has been used in two senses, viz-, actively and pas- 
sively ; energetic (=foniia formans), and material (=;forma formata). In 
the first sense it signifies the inward principle of whatever is requisite for 
the reaUty of a thing, as existent: while the esserwe, or eeeential pro- 
perty, signifies the iimer principle of all that appertauR to the posaibilUy of 
a thing. Hence, in accumte language, We say the essence of a mathemati- 
cal circle or other geometrical figure, not the nature ; because in the con- 
ception of fonns purely geometrical there is no expression or impli«atioa 
of their real existence. In the second, or material sense, of the word NA- 
TURE, we mean by it the sum total of all things, as far as they are objects 
of our senses, and consequently of possible experience— tlie aggregate of 
phenomena, whetlierexistmg for our outward senses, or for our inner sense. 
The doctrme concerning material nature would therefore, (the word Phys- 
iology being botli ambiguous in itself, and already otherwise appropriated) 
be more properly entitled Phsenomenology, distinguished mto its two grand 
divisions. Somatology and Psychology. The doctrine concerning energetic 
nature is comprised in the science of DYNAMICS ; the union of which 
with Phsenomenology, and tlie alUance of both with the sciences of the 
Possible, or of the Conceivable, viz. Logic and Mathematica, constitute 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY."— Am. Ed.] 

[30] p. 44. 

Some distant and faint similitude of this, that merely as a similitude 
may be mnocently used to quiet the Fancy, provided it be not imposed 
on the understajiding as an analogous fact or as identical in kind, is 
presented to us in the power of the Magnet to awaken and strengthen the 
magnetic power in a bar of Iron, and (in the instance of the compound 
magnet) acting in and with the latter. 

[31] p. 45. 

"The River windeth at his own sweet WiU." 

W&rdsworWs exquisite Sonnet on Westminster-bridge at Svn-nse. 

Bnt who does not see that here the poetic charm arises from the known 
and felt iwip-opriefy of the expression, in the technical sense of the word 
impropriety^ among Grammarians ? 

[32] p. 53. 

One of the numerous proofs against those who with a strange incon- 
sistency hold the Old Testament to have been inspired throughout, and 
yet deny that the doctrine of a future state is taught therein. 



276 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

[33] p. 67. 
[The following is the passage referred to in the Omniana. — Am. Ed.] 
I am fiimly persuaded, that no doctrbie was ever widely diffused among 
various nations through successive ages, and under different religions 
(such as is the doctrine of original sin, and redemption, those fundamen- 
tal articles of every Imown religion professing to be revealed) which is 
not founded either in the nature of things or in the necessities of our na- 
ture. In the language of tlie schools, it carries with it presumptive evi- 
dence, tliat it is either dbjedivdy or svhjedively true. And the more strange 
and contradictory such a doctrme may appear to the understanding, or 
discui-sive faculty, the stronger is the presumption in its favour : for whatever 
satirists may say, and sciolists imagine, the human mind has no predi- 
lection for absurdity. I do not however mean, that such a doctrine 
shall be always the best possible representation of the ti-uth, on which 
it is founded, for the same body casts strangely different shadows in 
different places and different degrees of hght ; but that it always does 
shadow out some such truth and derives its influence over our faith froni 
our obscure perception of that truth. Yea, even where the person him- 
self atmbutes his belief of it to the miracles, with which it was announced 
by the founder of his rehgion. 

It is a strong presumptive proof against materialism, that there does 
not exist a language on earth, fiom tlie rudest to the most refined, in 
which a materialist can talk for five minutes together, without involving 
some contradiction in terms to his own system. Direction. Will not this 
apply equally to the astronomer? Newton, no doubt, talked of the sun's 
rising and setting, just like other men. What should we think of the 
coxcomb,who should have objected to him, that he contradicted his own 
system ? Answer. — No ! it c^ les not aj)ply equally ; Say rather, it is utter- 
ly inapplicable to the astronomer and natural philosopher. For his phi- 
losophic, and his ordinary language speak of two quite diflferent things, 
both of which are equally true. In his ordinary language he refers to a 
fact of appearance, to a phaenomenon common and necessaiy to all per- 
sons in a given situation : in his scientific language he determines that one 
position, figure, &c. which being supposed, the appearance in question 
would be the necessaiy result, and all appearances in all situations may 
be demonstrably foretold. Let a body be suspended in the air, and strong- 
ly illuminated. What figure is here ? A triangle. But what here ? A 
trapezium,....and so on. The same question put to twenty men, in twenty 
different positions and distances, would receive twenty different answers : 
and each would be a true answer. But what is that one figure, which 
being so placed, all these facts of appeai'ance must result, according to the 
law of perspective ?....Aye ! tliis is a different question,....tliis is a new sub- 
ject. The words, which answer this, would be absurd, if used hi reply to 
the former. 



NOTES. 277 

Thus, the language of the scriptures on natural objects is as strictly phi- 
losophical as that of the Newtonian system. Perhaps, more so. For it is 
not only equally true, but it is univei-sal among mankhid, and unchange- 
able. It describes facts of appearance. And what other language would 
have been consistent with the divine wisdom ? The inspired writers must 
have bon'owed their terminology, either from the crude and mistaken phi- 
losophy of their own times, and so have sanctified and perpetuated false- 
hood, unintelligible meantime to all but one in ten thousand ; or they must 
have anticipated the terminology of the true system, without any revela- 
tion of the system itself, and so have become unintelligible to all men ; or 
lastly, they must have revealed the system itself, and thus have left nothing 
for the exercise, developement, or reward of the human understanding, in- 
stead of teaching that moral knowledge, and enforcing those social and ci- 
vic virtues, out of which the arts and sciences will spring up in due time, and 
of their own accord. But nothing of this apphes to the materiahst ; he re- 
fers to the very same facts, which the common language of mankind speaks 
of: and these too are facts, that have then: sole and entire being in our own 
consciousness ; facts, as to which esse and conscire are identical. Now, 
whatever is conmion to all languages, in all climates, at all times, and in all 
stages of civilization, must be the Exponent and Consequent of the common 
consciousness of man, as man. Whatever contradicts this universal lan- 
guage, therefore, contradicts the miiversal consciousness ; and the facts in 
question subsisting exclusively in consciousness, whatever contradicts the 
consciousness, contradicts the fact. 

[34] p. 58. 

Technical phrases of an obsolete System will yet retain their places, nay 
acquire universal currency, and become sterling in the language, when 
they at once represent the feelings, and give an apparent solution of them 
by visual images easily managed by the Fancy. Such are many terms 
and phrases from the Humoral Physiology long exploded, yet are far more 
popular than any description would be from the Theory that has taken its 
place. 

[35] p. 62. 

In check of fanatical pretensions, it is expedient to confine the term mi- 
raculous, to cases where tlie Senses are appealed to, in proof of something 
that transcends, or cannot be a part of, the Experience derived from the 
Senses. 

[36] p. 62, 
For let it not be forgotten, that Morality, as distinguished from Prudence 



278 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

imi)lying (it matters not under what name, whether of Honour, or Duty, 
or Conscience, still, I say, implying), and being grounded in, an awe of the 
Invisible and a Confidence therein beyond (nay occasionally in apparent 
contradiction to) the inductions of outward Experience, is essentially reli- 
gious, 
[See note 23.— Am. Ed.] 

[37] p. 72. 
See Huber on Bees, and on anta. 

[The meaning of some part of this Comment will be rendered more 
clear by refemng to the passage of the work in p. 151 — 154. — Am. Ed.] 

[38] p. 75. 

About the end of the same year (says Kalm), anotlier of these Animals 
(Mephitis Americana) crept into our cellar ; but did not exhale the smallest 
scent, because it icas not disturbed. A foolish old Woman, hoisever, who per- 
ceived it at night, by the shining, and thouglit, I suppose, that it would set the 
world on Jive, killed it : and at that Tnoment its stench began to spread. 

We recoimnend this anecdote to the consideration of sundry old Wo- 
men, on tliis side of the Atlantic, who, though they do not wear the ap- 
propriate garment, are worthy to sit in their committee-room, like Bicker- 
staff in tlie Tatler, under the canopy of their Grandam's Hoop-petticoat. 

[39] p. 76. 

To the same purpose are the two following sentences from Hilary : 

Etiam quae pro ReU^one dicimus, cum grand! metu et disciplina dicere 
debemus. — Hilarius de Trinit. Lib. 7. 

Non Relictus est hominum eloquiis de Dei rebus aUus quam Dei sermo. 
Idem. 

The latter, however, must be taken with certain Qiialijicaiions and Ex- 
ceptions : as when any two or more Texts are in apparent contradiction, 
and it is required to state a truth that comprehends and reconciles both, 
and which, of course, cannot be expressed in the words of either. Ex. gr. 
the filial subordination {My Father is greater than i), in the equal Deity {My 
Father and I are one), 

[40] p. 82. 
yitravota, the New Testament word, which we render by Repentance, 
compoimded of fitra, trans, and wc, mens, the Spirit, or practical Reason. 

[41] p. 83. 
May I without offence be permitted to record tlie very appropriate title. 



NOTES. 279 

with which a etem Humorist lettered a collection of Unitarian Tracts ?— 
" Salvation made easy ; or, Every Man his own Redeemer." 

[42] p. 88. 

On this principle alone is it possible to justify capital, or ignominious 
Punishments (or indeed any punishment not having the reformation of 
the Criminal, as one of its objects). Such Punishments, like those in- 
flicted on Suicides, must be regarded as posthumous : the willful extinc- 
tion of the moral and personal Life ,being, for the purposes of punitive 
Justice, equivalent to a wilful destruction of the natural Life. If the speech 
of Judge Burnet to the Horse-stealer (You are not hanged for stealing a 
Horse ; but, that Horses may not be stolen) can be vindicated at all, it 
must be on this principle ; and not on the all-unsettling scheme of Expe- 
dience, which is the anarchy of Morals. 

[Fully and strongly as I am convinced of the importance and the truth 
of the distinctions made, and the doctrines taught, in this PreUminary to 
Aphorisms on Spiritual Religion, I shall not attempt to add any thing to 
the distinctness or conclusiveness, with which they are stated by the au- 
thor. I will venture however in his behalf to solicit the readers of the 
work and especially those, who have received their notions of tlie will 
from Edwards or from Brown, to give this and the other passages referred 
to in note 29th, a candid and studious attention. The relation of the will 
to the reason and conscience will be found exliibited more fully in other 
parts of the work. — Am. Ed.] 

[43] p. 98. 

[The distinguishing character, and the appropriate functiomoLReason, 
in the sense in which it is used by the author, will be found pp. 136-139- 
141-145, and in the 59th note. Its authority in relation to matters of faith 
is more fidly stated in subsequent parts of the work. The following may 
be referred to among others, pp. 108-120, 132-134, 192-194, 204-206, and 
the appendix to the fii-st Lay Sermon republished at the end of this Vol- 
ume. This is a subject much talked of among speculative theologians and 
religious writers of eveiy class, yet how seldom with any definite and sat- 
isfactory result. A critical analysis of our cognitive faculties, and of the 
subjective grounds of faith in the human mind, is obviously the only 
method of arriving at fixed and rational conclusions respecting it ; and I 
speak with confidence in saying, that a careful study of the passages in 
this work referred to above, and a clear apprehension of the distinction 
pointed out between the understanding and the reason,, and of the distinct 
offices of the latter, as speculative, and as practical reason, will do more to 
solve the difficulties of the student on matters of this sort, than any or all 
other discussions of the subject, which he will be likely to meet with in 



280 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

the English Language. In regaid to the use of terms here it is deserving 
of remark, tliat Hemy More, one of the most learned and profound phi- 
losophei-s of the most philosopliical age, has employed the word reason 
a garly in the same sense as that, in which it is used by Coleridge. Tliis 
appeal's from tlie extracts before and after the Aphorism, widi which this 
note is connected, and still more clearly from "the Preface genei-al" to his 
Philosophical Works. "Take away REASON," he remaiks, "and all re- 
ligions are ahke tme ; as the light being removed all things ai'e of one col- 
our." For other exti-acts see note 59th. I might refer to the works of this 
autlior for examples of a use very similai* to that adopted by Coleridge in 
regard to the meaning assigned to many other important words besides 
the one mentioned, as sense, understanding, notion, perception, conceptimi, 
idea, subject, object, &c. To those, who are not convinced that all true 
philosophy is to be found in the writers of the last centuiy, and are fond 
of seeking it in the forgotten folios of a more ancient date, the works of 
this audior will afford both instruction and amusement. The axioms laid 
down in the commencement of his treatise on the Immortality of the Soul, 
and the first Book of his "Antidote against Atheism," are evidence of pro- 
found philosophical insight into the laws of the human mind and the 
grounds of our knowledge. The following remarks respecting the man- 
ner, in which his works should be read, I could wish the reader to apply 
to the present work. " If any," he says, " expect or desire any general in- 
struction or preparation for the more profitably perusing of these my wri- 
tings, I must profess, that I can give none that is peculiar to them, but 
what vnll fit all writings that are writ with FREEDOM and REASON. 
And this one royal nde I would recommend for edl, not to judge of the 
truth of any proposition till we have a settled and determinate apprehension of 
the terms thereof. Which law, though it be so necessary and indispensable, 
yet there is none so fi-equently broken as it is : the effect whereof is those 
many heaps of volummous ^vritings, and inept oppositions and controver- 
sies that fill the world. Which were impoissible to be, if men had not got 
a habit of fluttering mere words against one another, without taking no- 
tice of any determinate sense, and so did fight as it were with so many 
Hercules' clubs made of pasteboard, which cause a great sound, but do no 
execution towards the ending of disputes. See note 58. The following 
on the subject of the Aphorism is from the Friend, vol. 3. pp. 103-106. — 
Am. Eb.] 

"We have the highest possible authority, that of Scripture itself, to jus- 
tify us in putting the question : Whether miracles can, of themselves, 
work a true conviction in the mind ? There are spiritual truths which must 
derive their e\idence from within, which whoever rejects, "neither vrillhe 
believe though a man were to rise from the dead" to confirm them. And 
under the Mosaic laAv a miracle in attestation of a false doctrine subjected 
the miracle-worker to death : whether really or only seemingly supemat- 



NOTES. 281 

iiral, makes no difference in the present argument, its power of convin- 
cing, whatever that power may be, whether great or small, depending on 
the fulness of the belief in its miraculous nature. Est quibus esse vide- 
tur. Or rather, that I may express the same position in a form less likely 
to offend, is not a true efficient conviction of a moral truth, is not " the 
creating of a new heart," which collects the energies of a man's whole 
being in the focus of the conscience, the one essential miracle, the same 
and of the same evidence to the ignorant and the learned, which no supe- 
rior skill can counterfeit, human or dsemoniacal ? Is it not emphatically 
that leading of the Father, without which no man can come to Christ ? 
Is it not that implication of doctrine in the miracle, and of miracle in the 
doctrine, which is the bridge of communication between the senses and 
the soul ? Tl^at predisposing warmth that renders the understanding sus- 
ceptible of the specific impression from the historic, and fi^om all other 
outward, seals of testimony ? Is not this the one infallible criterion of 
miracles, by which a man can knoio whether they be of God ? The ab- 
hon-ence in which the most savage or barbarous tribes hold vntchcrafl, in 
which however their behef is so intense* as even to control the springs of 
life, — is not this abhoiTcnce of witchcraft under so full a conviction of its 
reality a proof, how little of divine, how little fitting to our nature, a mir- 
acle is, when insulated from spiritual truths, and disconnected from reli- 
gion as its end ? What then can we think of a theological theoiy, which 
adoptmg a scheme of prudential legahty, common to it with "the sty of 
Epicurus" as far at least as the springs of moral action are concerned, 
makes its whole religion consist in the belief of miracles ! As well might 
the poor African prepare for himself a fetisch by plucking out the eyes 
from the eagle or the lynx, and enshrining the same, worship in them the 
power of vision. As the tenet of professed Christians (I speak of the prm- 
ciple, not of the men, whose hearts will always more or less correct the er- 
rors of their understandings) it is even more absurd, and the pretext for 
such a rehgion more inconsistent than the religion itself. For they profess 
to derive from it their whole faith in that futurity, which if they had not 
previously beheved on the e^ddence of their own consciences, of Moses 
and the Prophets, they are assured by the great Founder and Object of 
Christianity, that neither will they believe it, in any spiritual and profitable 
sense, though a man should rise from the dead." y 

[44] p. 100. 

The very marked, positive as well as comparative, magnitude and promi- 
nence of the Bump, entitled Benevolence (^ee Spurzheim's Map of the 



*I refer the reader to Heame's Travels among the Copper Indians, and 
to Bryan Edwards' account of the Oby in the West Indies, grounded on 
judicial documents and personal observation. 

36 



282 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Human Skully on the head of the late Mr. John Thurtel, has wofuUy un- 
settled the faith of many ardent Phrenologists, and strengthened the pre- 
vious doubts of a still greater number into utter disbelief. On my mind 
this fact (for a fact it is) produced the direct contrary effect ; and inclined 
me to suspect, for the first time, that there may be some truth in the 
Spurzheimian Scheme. Whether future Craniologists may not see cause 
to nctv-name this and one or two other of these convex gnomons, is quite 
a different question. At pi-esent, and according to the present use of 
words, any such change would be premature : and we must be content to 
say, that Mr. Thurtel's Benevolence was insufficiently modified by the un- 
protrusive and vmindicated Convolutes of the Brain, that secrete honesty 
and common-sense. The organ of Destructiveness was indu'ectly poten- 
ziakd by the absence or imperfect developement of the Glands of Reason 
and Conscience, in tliia " unfortunate GenUeman ."' 

[45] p. 106. 

[Those w1k> are disposed to defend the doctrines of Edwards on the 
subject of the Will, are requested, before they take offence at the language 
of this passage, to reperuse the Preliminary remarks, p. 87 — 92, and can- 
didly to examine, in connexion with it, the author's views of original sin, 
beginning at p. 158, being careful to obtain " a settled and detemiinate ap- 
prehension" of the several unportant terais made use of The Will, ac- 
cording to Edwards, "is as the greatest apparent good is." The strongest 
motive in the view of the understanding detei-mines the Will. — But the 
motive again, or the greatest apparent good, is as the man is- The man 
makes the motive. One man fhids a motive to sin, where another would 
find the strongest incitement to virtue. The detemiining power or cause, 
then, is in the man, and, keeping in view the distinction between nature 
and will, the important question is, w^iether this power or determining cause 
be in his nature or m his ivill. If it be in his nature, and the law of cause 
and effect, which constitutes his nature, be the law of his will, in other 
words, if his will be absorbed in that law, and a part of his nature, (see 
page 183) then whatever evil there may be in the acts of his will must be 
charged upon his nature ; and if this nature or law of cause and effect, by 
which his will is detemiined, do not result in any sense fiom a previous 
act of the will, if it be implanted, inherited, or inflicted, in any way, for 
which the individual could not be personally responsible, then the evil na- 
ture of a m£Ln differs nothing in its relation to moral rectitude and moral 
responsibility fi'om tlie evil nature of a brute. He may feel regret for it, but 
he should not feel remorse. If on the other hand the determining cause, 
the moving power or influence be 7iot in his nature, if the act of the will 
be not predetermined by a cause out of the will, of which it is the effect, 
so as to be a link in the chain of antecedents and consequents, which we 
call nature ; then the determining cause must be in the will itself, and the 



NOTES. 



283 



will is self-dotermined. If it be an evil will, it must Iiave become m by Its 
own act, or it is not sinful. If the man's nature have the ascendency and 
the dominion, so that the will is subjected to the lav/ of the flesh, the law in 
the members, it must have been self-subjected, and the person is responsi- 
ble for his evil nature. "For a nature in the will is an evil nature." But 
there is little gained by multiplying words, and the objections to this view 
of the subject, that may naturally be cx})ected from those, who are accus- 
tomed to the New England writei-s, at least all, that are most important, 
and to which the objector has a right to demand an answer, will find a ra- 
tional one in the i)assages referred to, and in those, which relate to the of- 
fice of Reason. — See references in the 43d note, — on tlie general subject 
of the note, see also note 29. — Am. Ed.] 

[46] p. 107, 

At a period, in which Doctor Marsh and Wordsworth have, by the 
Zealots on one side, been charged with popish principles on account of 
their Anti-hibliolalry^ and the sturdy adherents of the doctrines common to 
Luther and Calvin, and the literal interpreters of the Articles and Homilies, 
are (I ymh. I could say, altogether without any fault of their own) regard- 
ed by the Clergy generally as virtual Schismatics, Dividers o/*, though not 
froiih, the Church, it is serving the cause of charity to assist in circulating 
the follo\ving instructive passage from the Life of Bishop Hackett respect- 
ing the disputes between the Augustinians, or Luthoro-calvinistic Divines 
and the Grotians of his age : in which controversy (says his Biographer) 
he, Hacket, " was ever very moderate." 

"But having been bred under Bishop Davenant and Dr. Ward in Cam- 
bridge, he was addicted to then' sentiments. Archbishop Usher would 
say, that Davenant understood those controversies better than ever any 
man did since Augustin. But he (Bishop Hackett) used to say, that he 
was sure, he had three excellent men of his mind hi this controversy. 1. 
Padre Paolo (Father Paul) whose Letter is extant to Heinsius, aivm 1604. 
2. Thomas Aquinas. 3. St. Augustin. But besides and above them all, he 
beheved in his Conscience that St. Paul was of the same mind likewise. 
Yet at the same time he would profess, that he disliked no Arminians, but 
such as revile and defame every one who is not so : and he would often 
commend Ai-minius himself for his excellent Wit and Pails, but only tax 
his want of reading and knowledge in Antiquity. And he ever held, it 
was the foohshest thing in the world to say the Arminians were popisJdy 
inclined, when so many Dominicans and Jansenists were rigid followers of 
Augustin in these points : and no less foolish to say that the Anti-arminians 
were Puritans or Presbyterians when Jfard and Davenant, and Prideaux, 
and Brownri^, those stout Champions for Episcopacy, were decided And- 
Arminians : while Arminius himself was ever a Presbyterian. Therefore 
he greatly commended the moderation of our Church, which extended 
equal Communion to both." 



284 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

[47] p. 108. 
The gigantic Indian Spider. See Baker's Microscopic Experiments. 

[48] p. 114. 
Exempli gratia : at the date of St. Paul's Epistles, the (Roman) World 
may be resembled to a Mass in the Furnace in the fii-st moment of fusion, 
here a speck and there a spot of the melted Metal shining pure and bril- 
liant amid the scum and dross. To have received the name of Christian 
was a privilege, a liigh and distinguishing favour. No wonder therefore, 
that in St. Paul's writings the words Elect and Election, often, nay, most 
often, mean the same as eccaliimeni, ecclesia, i. e. those who have been call- 
ed out of tlie World : and it is a dangerous pervei-sion of the Apostle's 
word to interpret it in the sense, in which it was used by our Lord, viz. in 
opposition to the called. (Many are called but few chosen). In St. Paul's 
sense and at that time the Believers collectively formed a small and select 
number ; and every Christian, real or nominal, was one of the elect. Add 
too, that this ambiguity is increased by tbc accidental circumstance, that 
the kyriak, JEdes Dominica, Lord's House, Kirk ; and Ecclesia, the sum 
total of the Eccalumeni, evocati, CaUed-out ; are both rendered by the same 
word Church. 

[49] p. 116. 
Or (I might have added) auTf Idea which does not either identify the 
Creator vnth the Creation ; or else represent the Supreme Being as a mere 
impersonal Law or Ordo ordinans, diftering from the Law of Gravitation 
only by its universality. 

[50] p. 117. 
I have elsewhere remarked on tlie assistance which those that labour 
after distinct conceptions would receive from tlie re-introduction of the 
tenns objective and subjective, objective and subjective reality, &c. as substi- 
tutes for real and notional, and to the exclusion of the false antithesis be- 
tween real and ideal. For the Student in that noblest of the Sciences, 
the Scire teipsum, the advantage would be especially great*. The few 

*See the " Selection from Mr. Coleridge's Literary Coire^ondence'^ in 
Blackwood's Ed. Magazine, for October 1821, Letter ii.p. 244—253, which 
however, should any of my Readers take the the trouble of consulting, he 
must be content with such parts as he finds intelligible at the first perusal. 
For from defects in the MS., and without any fault on tlie part of the Edi- 
tor, too large a portion is so printed that the man must be equally bold and 
fortunate in his conjectural readings who can make out any meaning at all. 

[Most of the above-mentioned " Selection" will be found in the Appen- 
dix to this Volume. It is reprinted without any attempt at coiTection. 

Am. Ed.] 



NOTES. 2S5 

sentences that follow, in illustration of the terms here advocated, will not, 
I trust, be a waste of the Reader's Time. 

The celebrated Euler having demonstrated certain properties of Arches 
adds : " All experience is in contradiction to this ; but this is no reason for 
doubting its tiiith." The words sound paradoxical ; but mean no more 
than this — ^that the mathematical properties of Figure and Space are not 
less certainly the properties of Figure and Space because they can never 
be perfectly realized in wood, stone, or iron. Now this assertion of Eu- 
ler's might be expressed at once, briefly and simply, by saying, that the 

pi'operties in question were subjectively true, though not objectively or 

that the Mathematical Arch possessed a subjective reality^ though incapable 
of being realized objectively. 

In hke manner if I had to express my conviction, that Space was not 
itself a Thing, but a mode or form of perceiving, or the inward ground 
and condition in the Percipient, in consequence of which Things are seen 
as outward and co-existing, I convey this at once by tlie words, Space is 
subjective^ or Space is real in and for the Subject alone. 

If I am asked, why not say in and for the miiul, which every one would 
understand ? I reply : we know indeed, that all minds are Subjects ; but 
are by no means certain, that all Subjects are Minds. For a Mind is a 
Subject that knows itself, or a Subject that is its own Object. The inward 
principle of Growth and inchvidual Fonn in every Seed and Plant is a 
Sidjectj and without any exertion of poetic privilege Poets may speak of 
the Soul of the Flower. But the man would be a Dreamer, who other- 
wise than poetically should speak of Roses and Lilies as self-conscious 
Subjects. Lastly, by the assistance of the terms, Object and Subject, thus 
used as correspondent Opposites, or as Negative and Positive in Physics 
(ex. gr. Neg. and Pos. Electricity) we may arrive at the distinct import 
and proper use of the strangely misused word. Idea. And as the Forms of 
Logic are all borrowed from Geometry (Ratiocinatio c/wcwrst2;a fonnas suas 
sive canonas recipit ab intuitu,) I may be permitted so to elucidate my pre- 
sent meaning. Every Line may be, and by the ancient Geometricians ims, 
considered as a point produced, the two extremes being its poles, while the 
Point itself remains in, or is at least represented by, the mid-i)oint, the In- 
difference of the two poles or coiTclative opposites. Logically applied, 
the two extremes or poles are named Thesis and Antithesis : thus in the 
line 

I 

T A 

we have Tr= Thesis, A r=: Antithesis, and I = Punctum Indifferens sive 
Amphotericum, which latter is to be conceived as both in as far as it may be 
either of the two former. Observe : not both at the same time in the same 
relation : fof this would be the Identity of T and A, not the Indifference. 
But so, that relatively to A, I is equal to T, and relatively to T it becomes 



286 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

rz: A. Thus In chemistry Sulphuretted Hydrogen is an Acid relatively to 
the more powerful Alkalis, and an Alkali relatively to a pow^erful Acid. 
Yet one other remai'k, and I pass to the question. In order to render the 
constructions of pure Mathematics applicable to Pliilosophy, the Pythago- 
reans, I imagine, represented the Line as generated, or, as it were, radiated 
by a Point not contained in the Line but independent, and (in the lan- 
guage of that School) transcendent to all pmduction, which it caused but 
did not paital^e m. Facit, non patitur. This was the Punctum invisibile, 
et presuppositum: and in this way the Pythagoreans guarded against the 
error of Pantheism, into which the later schools fell. The assumption of 
this Pomt I call the logical prothesis. We have now therefore four Re- 
lations of Thought expressed . viz. 1. Prothesis, or the Identity of T and 
A, which is neither, because in it, as the transcendent of both, both are 
contained and exist as one. Taken absolutely, this finds its application in 
tlie Supreme Being alone, the Pythagorean tetractts ; the ineffable 
NAME, to which no Image dare be attached ; the Point, which has no (real) 
Opposite or Counter-point, &c. But relatively taken and inadequately, the 
germinal power of every seed {see p. 42) might be generahzed under the 
relation of Identity. 2. Thesis or Position. 3. Antithesis, or Opposition. 
4. Indifference. (To which when we add the Synthesis or Composition, 
m its several forms of EquUibrium, as in quiescent Electricity ; of Neu- 
tralization, as of Oxygen and Hydrogen in Water ; and of Predominance, 
as of Hydrogen and Carbon with Hydrogen predominant, in pure Alcohol, 
or of Carbon and Hydrogen, with the comparative predominance of the 
Carbon, in Oil *, we complete tlie five most general Forms or Preconcep- 
tions of Constructive Logic). 

And now for the answer to the Question, What is an idea, if it mean 
neither an impression on the Senses, nor a definite Conception, nor an ab- 
stract Notion ? (And if it does mean either of these, the word is super- 
fluous : and while it remains undetennined which of these is meant by 
the word, or whether it is not which you please, it is worse than superfluous. 
See the Statesman's Manual, Appendix ad finem). But supposing the 
word to have a meaning of its own, what does it mean ? What is an idea ? 
In answer to this I commence with the absolutely Real, as the prothesis ; 
the subjectively Real as the thesis ; the objectively Real as the antithesis : 
and I aflirm, that Idea is the indifference of the two — so namely, that if 
it be conceived as in the Subject, the Idea is an Object, and possesses Ob- 
jective ti-uth ; but if in an Object, it is then a Subject, and is necessarily 
thought of as exercising the powers of a Subject. Thus an idea conceiv- 
ed as subsistmg in an Object becomes a law ; and a Law contemplated 
subjectively (in a mind) is an Idea. 

In the third and last Section of my "Elements of Discourse ;" in which 
(after having in the two former sections treated of the Common or Syllo- 
gistic Logic — the science of legitunate conclusions; and the Critical Logic, 



NOTES. 



287 



or the Criteria of Truth and Falsehood in all Premises), I have given at 
full my scheme of Constructive Reasoning, or " Logic as the Organ of 
Philosophy," in the same sense as the Mathematics are the Organ of Sci- 
ence ; the Reader will find proofs of the Utility of this Scheme, including 
the five-fold Division above-stated, and numerous examples of its applica- 
tion. Nor is it only in Theology that its importance will be felt, but equally, 
nay in a greater degi'ee, as an instrument of Discovery and universal Me- 
thod in Physics, Physiology, and Statistics. As this third Section does 
not pretend to the forensic and comparatively popular character and utility 
of the parts preceding, one of the Objects of the present Note is to obtain 
the opinions of judicious friends respecting the expedience of publishing 
it, in the same form, indeed, and as an Aimexment to the " Elements of 
Discourse," yet so as that each may be purchased sepamtely. 

[As the above note, so far at least as it relates to the definition of an 
idea, will appear very abstmse and unintelligible to many readers, I shall 
bring together a few exti-acts from other parts of the author's works, for 
the puii)ose of illustration, though some of them will perhaps not be 
thought to throw much Ught upon the subject. 

"There is, strictly speaking, no proper opposition but between thb 
TWO polar forces of one and the same power. Every power in na- 
ture AND IN SPIRIT miist evolvt an opposite, as thesole meam and condiiion 
of its manifestation : and all opposition is a tendency to reunion. 
This is the universal law of polarity or essential Dualism, first promulga- 
ted by Heraclitus, 2000 years afterwards re-published, and made the found- 
ation both of Logic, of Physics, and of Metaphysics by Giordano Bruno. 

The prmciple may be thus expressed. The Identity of Thesis and 
Antithesis is the substance of all Being ; their Opposition the condition of 
all Eristence, or Being manifested ; and every Thing or Phaenomenon is 
the Exponent of a Synthesis as long as the opposite energies are retained 
in that Synthesis. Thiis Water is neither Oxygen nor Hydrogen, nor yet 
is it a commixture of both ; but the Synthesis or Indifference of the two : 
and as long as the copula endures, by which it becomes Water, or rather 
which alone is Water, it is not less a simple Body than either of the ima- 
ginary Elements, improperly called its Ingredients or Components. It is 
the object of the mechanical atomistic Psilosophy to confound Synthesis 
with synartesis, or rather with mere juxta-position of Coi-puscles separated 
by invisible Intei-spaces. I find it difficult to detennine, whether this tlie- 
ory contradicts tlie Reason or the Senses most : for it is alike inconceiva- 
ble and unimaginable."— T/ie Fnend, vol. It pp. 155—156. 

The foUowmg is the continuation of a passage partly inserted in note 
29th. 

" Having thus explained the term Nature, we now more especially en- 
treat tlie reader's attention to the sense, in which here, and every where 



288 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

through this Essay, we use the word Idea. We assert, that tlie very im- 
pulse to universalise any phsenomenon involves the prior assumption of 
some efficient law in nature, which in a thousand different forms is ever- 
more one and the same ; entire in each, yet comprehending all ; and in- 
capable of being abstracted or generahzed from any number of phaenom- 
ena, because it is itself pre-supposed in each and all as their common 
ground and condition : and because every definition of a genus is the ad- 
equate definition of the lowest species alone, while the efficient law must 
contain the ground of all in all. It is attributed, never derived. The ut- 
most we ever venture to say is, that the falling of an apple suggested the 
law of gi-avitation to Sir I. Newton. Now a law and an idea are coitc- 
lative temis, and differ only as object and subject, as being and truth. 

Such is the doctnne of the Novum Organum of Lord Bacon, agreeing 
(as we shall more largely show in the text) in all essential points with the 
ti'ue doctrine of Plato, the apparent differences being for the greater part 
occasioned by the Grecian sage having applied his principles chiefly to the 
investigation of the mind, and the method of evolving its powers, and the 
English philosopher to the developement of nature. That our great 
countiyman speaks too often deti'actingly of tlie divine philosopher must 
be explained, partly by the tone given to thinking minds by the Reform- 
ation, the founders and fathers of which saw in the Ai'istotelians, or school- 
men, the antagonists of Protestantism, and in tlie Italian Platonists the 
despisers and secret enemies of Christianity itself; and partly, by his hav- 
ing formed his notions of Plato's doctrines fi'om the absurdities and phan- 
tasms of his mismterpreters, rather than from an unprejudiced study of 
the original works." — The Friend, vol. 3. pp. 168 — 169. 

In the next extract the relation of the subjective idea to the coiTelativc 
law existing objectively in nature, is illustrated by an example, which will 
probably render the whole subject more intelligible, as well as give some 
notion of the autlior's views on subjects of physical science. 

"But in experimental philosophy, it may be said how much do we not 
owe to accident ? DoublJess : but let it not be forgotten, that if the dis- 
coveries so made stop there ; if they do not excite some master idea ; if 
they do not lead to some law (m whatever dress of theory or hypotheses 
the fashions and prejudices of the time may disguise or disfigure it) : the 
discoveries may remain for ages limited in their uses, insecure and unpro- 
ductive. How many centuries, we might have said millennia, have pass- 
ed, since the first accidental discovery of the attraction and repulsion of 
light bodies by rubbed amber, &c. Compare the interval with the pro- 
gress made withui less than a centuiy, after the discovery of the phsenom- 
ena that led immediately to a theory of electricity. That iicre as in ma- 
ny other instances, the theory was suppoited by insecure hypotheses ; that 
by one theorist two heterogeneous fluids are assumed, the vitreous and the 
resinous ; by another, a plus and minus of the same fluid ; that a third 



NOTES. 

considers it a mere modification of light ; while a fourth composes the ^ 
electrical aura of oxygen, hydrogen, and caloric ; this does but place tlie 
ti-uth we have been evolving in a stronger and clearer light. For abstract 
from all these suppositions, or rather imaginations, that which is common 
to, and involved in them all ; and we shall have neither notional fluid or 
fluids, nor chemical compounds, nor elementary matter— but the idea of 
two — opposite— forces, tending to rest by equiMbrium. These are the sole 
factors of the calculus, alike in all the theories. These give the law, and 
in it the method, both of arranging the phsenomena and of substantiating 
appearances into facts of science ; with a success proportionate to the 
clearness or confusedness of the insight into the law. For this reason, we 
anticipate the greatest improvements in the method, the nearest approaches 
to a system of electricity from those philosophers, who have presented the 
law most purely, and the con-elative idea as an idea : those, namely, who, 
smce the year 1798, in the true spirit of experimental dynamics, rejecting 
the imagination of any material substrate, simple or compound, contem- 
plate in the phsenomena of electricity the operation of a law which reigns 
through all nature, the law of polarity, or the manifestation of one pow- 
er by opposite forces: who trace in these appearances, as the most obvi- 
ous and striking of its innumerable forms, the agency of the positive and 
negative poles of a power essential to all material construction ; the sec- 
ond, namely, of the three primary principles, for which the beautiful and 
most appropriate symbols are given by the mind in the tlu'ee ideal dimen- 
sions of space."— TAe Friend, vol. 3. p. 186— 188. 

" The diflTerence, or rather distinction between Plato and Lord Bacon is 
simply this : that philosophy being necessarily bi-polar, Plato treats piin- 
cipally of the truth, as it manifests itself at the ideal pole, as the science 
of intellect (i. e. de mundo mtelligibili) ; while Bacon confines himself, for 
the most part, to the same truth, as it is manifested at the other, or mate- 
rial pole, as the science of nature (i. e. de mundo sensibiH). It is as ne- 
cessary, therefore, that Plato should direct his inquiries chiefly to those 
objective truths that exist in and for the intellect alone, the images and 
representatives of which we construct for ourselves by figure, number, and 
word ; as that Lord Bacon should attach his main concern to the tmths 
which have their signatures in nature, and which, (as he himself plamly 
and oflen asserts) may indeed be revealed to us through and ivith, but never 
hif the senses, or the faculty of sense. Otherwise, indeed, histead of be- 
ing more objective than the former (which they are not in any sense, both 
being in this respect the same), they would be less so, anfl in fact, incapa- 
ble of being insulated from the " Idola tribus quse in ipsa natura humana 
fundata sunt, atque in ipsa tribu sen gente hominum : cum omnes percep- 
tiones tam sensus quam mentis, sunt ex analogia hominis non ex analo- 
gia universi." (N. O. xli.) Hence, too, it will not surprise us, that Plato 
so oflen calls ideas living laws, in which the mind has its whole true be- 

37 



290 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

ing and permanence ; or that Bacon vice versa, names the laws of nature, 
ideas ; and represents what we have, in a former part of this disquisition, 
called facts of science and central phcenomenay as signatures, impressions, 
and symbols of ideas. A distinguishable power self-affimied, and seen in 
its miity with the Eternal Essence, is, according to Plato, an Idea : and 
the discipline, by wliich the human mind is purified from its idols {«i5wAa), 
and raised to the contemplation of Ideas, and thence to the secure and 
ever-progressive, though never-ending, investigation of truth and reality 
by scientific method, comprehends what the same philosopher so highly 
extols mider the title of Dialectic. According to Lord Bacon, as descri- 
bing the same truth seen from the opposite point, and appUed to natural 
philosophy, an idea would be defined as — Intuitio sive inventio, quae in 
perceptione sensus non est (ut quae purae et sicci luminis Intellectioni est 
propria) idearum divinse mentis, prout in creaturis per signaturas suas sese 
patefaciant. That (saith the judicious Hooker) which doth assign to each 
thing the kind, that which determines the force and power, that which 
doth appoint the form and measure of working, the same we term a Law. 

The Friend, vol. 3. p. 210—213. 

To do justice to the subject of the last extract the whole Essay should 
have been inserted, but much of it would be alien to the main purpose of 
the note. I trust however, what is here said of tlie coincidence of the 
philosophy of Bacon with that of Plato, will awaken the curiosity of some 
who have been taught to consider them as directly opposed, and lead them 
to read all that is said upon this subject in the Friend, vol. 3. Essays 7 
and 8. If he do so, or take the pains to examine tlie subject at his leisure 
by comparing the works of those great men, he will be convinced, that at 
least many of the prevailing notions, respecting the philosophy of Plato, 
could have originated only in ignorance or misrepresentation. Though 
his works are often spoken of, and his doctrines alluded to, by Stewart, I 
remember but few instances, in which he refers to particular passages, 
and in these he does it on tlie autliority of others. Now to say nothing 
of what might be considered in any man the presumption, at least the in- 
expediency, of writing and pubUshing a work of general metaphysics, 
without first becoming acquainted with works on the subject so lojig and 
widely celebrated, as those of Plato, it was certainly incumbent on him to 
speak of what he had not read with extreme caution. That he has not 
been sufficiently guarded in the representations which he makes of Pla- 
to's doctrines, is apparent even to those who have but a slight acquaint- 
ance with the oiiginal ; and there can be no doubt, that both he and Dr. 
Reid entirely misapprehended the genei-al character of his philosophy. 
One of the few references to paiticulai* passages is made, in the beginning 
of his chapter on perception, to the 7th Book of Plato's Republic, "in 
which," he says, " he compares the process of the mind in perception to 
that of a person in a cave, who sees not external objects themselves, but 



NOTES. 291 

only their shadows." Now let any scliolar, who lias studied Bacon's No- 
vum Organum, and can construe a sentence of Greek, read the passage 
referred to, and compare it with the latter part of the Gth Book, and he 
■will find, instead of a fanciful account of the process of i)erception, some- 
thing indeed about a person in a cave, into which the shadows of objects 
are thrown, but designed to illustrate a subject entirely different. By 
comparing it Avith the Novum Organmn, he will be convinced, that Plato 
is here exhibiting the difficulties and obstructions, which the reason, rag, 
(lux intellectiis, lumen siccum) finds, in its search afler truth and in the 
contemplation of ideas, from the unreal pJmntasms, and deceptive idolSf 
tidiuXi/y (idola tribus, specus, fori, theatri of Ld. Bacon) of the senses and 
the understanding. I refer to tliis as an instance merely, by which every 
one may verify for himself the above charges of ignorance and misappre- 
hension. 

I have been willing to dwell the longeron this subject, because it is obvi- 
ously one of great practical impoilemce to the cause of education among us. 
If it be a fact, that the system of Plato, and tha of Lord Bacon, are essen- 
tially one and the same, and that both have been gi-ossly misapprehended, 
while a system of superficial and idea-less materialism has been unwar- 
rantably associated with the name and authority of the latter, it is surely 
time for the students in our Colleges and Universities to seek a knowledge 
of Plato's ideaSj and of Bacon's laws, from Plato and Ld. Bacon themselves, 
rather than from the popular philosophers of the day. 

A considerable portion of the Appendix to this Volume will be found to 
have a bearing upon the subject of tliis note. — Am. Ed.] 

[51] p. 119. 

In a letter to a Friend on the mathematical Atheists of the French Re- 
volution, La Lande and others, or rather on a young man of distinguished 
abilities, but an avowed and proselyting Paitizan of their Tenets, I conclu- 
ded with these words : " The man who will believe nothing but by force 
of demonstrative evidence (even though it is strictly demonstrable that tlie 
demonstrability required would countervene all the purposes of the Truth 
in question, all that render the belief of tlie same desirable or obligatory) 
is not in a state of mind to be reasoned with on any subject. But if he 
further denies the fact of the Law of Conscience, and the essential differ- 
ence between Right and Wrong, I confess, he puzzles me. I cannot with- 
out gross inconsistency appeal to his Conscience and Moral Sense, or I 
should admonish him that, as an honest man, he ought to odveHise himself 
with a Cavete omnes ! Scelus sum. And as an honest man ndyeelf, I 
dare not advise him on prudential grounds to keej) his opinions seipret, lest 
I should make myself his accomplice, and be helping him on tvith k Wrap- 
rascal. 



292 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

[Many persons, who have never carefully reflected upon the grounds of 
their belief in the Being and Attributes of God, or learned to distinguis^h 
between those which are subjective, in the reason and conscience, and to 
be learned by reflection, (see note 10) and those which are objective, in the 
order and apparent purpose discovered in tlie world without, may at first 
be surprised at the declarations of tlie author in the passage, to which this 
note belongs. A careful exami^iation however, of all his language respect- 
ing this subject and topics nearly connected with it, in this passage, in 
notes 43 and 59, and in the Appendix, will satisfy them, I think, not only 
that his views are not designed, but tliat tliey have no tendency to weak- 
en and unsettle our faith. According to his view of the subject, the true 
and abiding ground of all efiicient and living faith in the Being and Attri- 
butes of the one holy, all-perfect and personal Grod, is to be found not in 
data, facts given (see p, 177) from without, but by reflecting on and deve- 
loping the inward and inalienable law of our own rational and personal 
being. The idea of God being thus formed, and a corresponding object- 
ive reality believed in, on otlier grounds, such a work as Paley's Natural 
Theology may do much to illustrate his power and skill, as manifested in 
the works of his hands, but could never prove to the satisfaction of a mind 
really sceptical the existence of a first cause corresponding to the rational 
idea of God. Is it not indeed a fact, notwitlistanding the alnnidant com- 
mendation bestowed upon the work of Dr. Paley, the dependence placed 
upon it in our systems of instruction, and the assertion, that a mind un- 
satisfied with this argument is not to be satisfied at all — is it not a fact, I 
say, that many young men of ingenuous minds, but at the same time lo- 
gical and critical in their enquiries, are left unsatisfied with tlie results of 
tiie work. I fear there are many who, having been taught tliat this is the 
great and triumphant argument, the sure gi'ound, on which a behef in the 
existence of God depends, find their faith rather weakened by it than con- 
firmed, or at best lose more in regard to their views of his character, than 
they gain in their belief of his existence. It enters, we must remember, 
mto the very nature of the argument, which Paley has developed, and 
perhaps no one could have done it more justice, the argument from effects 
to their causes, I mean, that we can only infer the existence of a cause 
adequate to the production of the effect. Now what is tlie eflTect, for 
which Dr. Paley seeks a cause, and from which he infers the existence of 
God ? Simply the manifestation of design, of an intelligent, perhaps also 
a benevolent pm-pose, in the works of nature. The cause therefore, accor- 
ding to Dr. Paley, is an intelligent, probably a benevolent cause ; a being 
or a power capable of forethought, of forming a paipose and of adapting 
means to the accomphshment of its purpose. So far too as we can judge^ 
and so far as the practical purposes of the argument are concerned, this 
causative agency is unlimited in the choice of its ends, and carries tliem 
into effect with infinite power and sldll. This seems to me to be a fair 



NOTES. 293 

statement of the inference even in Dr. Paley's view of the subject. But 
does the cause thus infen*ed answer to our idea of an all-perfect and per- 
sonal God ? 

To one acquainted with the distinctions unfolded by Coleridge in subse- 
quent parts of this work, it would convey my view of the subject, to eay 
tliat the cause here inferred coiTesponds in kind to the powers of the un- 
derstanding and the faculty of selection, but does not necessarily involve 
according to the terms of the argument the distinguishing attributes of 
personahty, viz. reason, self-concipusness, and free-will. But as the read- 
er is not supposed to have adopted those distinctions, I beg him to con- 
sider whether we have not experience, that a power, the same in kind 
with that to which Dr. Paley's argument, if taken strictly, leads us, may 
exist independently and free from any supposed conjunction with the at- 
ti'ibutes, whatever they are, which constitute personality. For proof, tliat 
we have, I refer him to the passage of this work in pp. 137 — 154, and if in 
connexion with this he will carefully and candidly reflect on the notion 
which he attaches to the v/ords person and personality, and why it is, that 
his reason revolts at the thought of addressing a brute, as a personal and 
responsible being, however remarkable his powers may be as a brute, he 
cannot but be convinced, that there is something in personahty and the at- 
tributes constituting it, which lays the gi'ound of a most sacred and invio- 
lable distinction. He will be convinced that no possible addition to the 
degree of those powers, which belong in common to rational and in-ational 
beings, could ever invest a brute agent with the attributes of personahty ; 
that there must therefore be a difference in kind, and not in degree only, 
between those beings to which the notion of personality attaches, and 
those to which we cannot api)ly it without a conscious feeling of its ab- 
surdity ; and that there must be a very great defect and inadequacy in an 
argument for the existence of God, which proves at best only the exis- 
tence of a power, which may or may not. co-exist with pei-sonality. 

In his chapter on the personality of the Divine Being, Dr. Paley says : 
" CONTRIVANCE, if established, appears to me to prove eveiy thing, which 
we wish to prove. Amongst other things it proves the personality of the 
Deity. That, which can contrive, which can design, must be a person." 
Now let me ask any reader to examine the proofs referred to above, or to 
recall the facts of his own experience, and say, whether iiTational, brute 
beings do not contrive, whether they do not design, whetlier they do not 
perceive, an end, provide means, and direct them to their end ; and whether, 
if they can and do manifest these powers, it will follow tliat they are per- 
sons. If it be a difference of degi'ees merely, there is surely far less dif- 
ference between brutes and men, than between man and his creator ; and 
there could not be the absurdity, which we should nevertheless be con- 
scious of committing, in extending the term to them. If it be not a dif- 
ference of degrees, if personality involves a difference in kind, and a dif- 
ference, which ji; the ground of a vast and most sacred distinction, then 



294 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Dr. Paley's argument seems to me to fall far short of proving the exist- 
ence of a behig correspondhig to tlie rational idea of God. 

The truth is the argument from effect to cause in tliis case, as presented 
by Dr. Paley, hicludes two distinct things. It infers Jlrst the existence of 
a cause adequate to the effect. This we do by virtue of a proposition, 
which, though syntlietic, results fi'om the inherent forms or laws of the 
human understanding, and is the necessary ground of experience. (See 
note 67). But secondly it infers the existence of a cause corresponding m 
its subjective cJmractei', or as it is in itself, to the character of the effect, or at 
least of a cause analogous to known causes, which produce similar effects. 
Now the question arises, whether in either case the inference is authorized 
or required by the same laws of thought in tlie understanding, as the fust in- 
ference. We see certain effects, means adapted to ends &c., where the cau- 
sative agency is put forth by men, by rational, personal agents. We disco- 
ver similar effects in the works of nature, which must be traced to an invisi- 
ble, unknovm cause. How far are we directed by the authority of reason, 
or required by the laws of tlie understanding, to infer the nature of the 
cause here from the nature of the effect, or from the similarity of the effects 
in the two cases to infer a similarity of the unknown cause to that which 
is known? Dr. Paley's inference is, that the unknown cause is an intelligent, 
personal agent, corresponding in kind to the highest known agency, which 
produces similar effects. But we have seen, I think, that similar effects 
may be produced by a power inferior in kind, neither rational, nor person- 
al. How then do we know, or how can we learn by this process of ar- 
guing, that the unknown cause of those effects, which Dr. Paley has ex- 
hibited, that the mysterious and dread ground of being in all, that exists 
and tliat we call nature, is not a necessitated as well as a necessaiy Being 
or that it is even self-conscious and intelligent. 

If now, as I trust will be the case, the reader shrinks with a conscious 
feeling of dread and abhorrence from such a conclusion, as impious^ I 
would earnestly beg of him not to charge it upon me, and at the same time 
warn him not to ascribe the feeling, which such a conclusion woidd awa- 
ken, to any convictions of the being and attributes of a personal God, 
which the supposed strength and influence of Paley's argument may have 
been thought to produce. That faith in the Bemg of God, and that rever- 
ence for his holy and perfect character, in virtue of whicli we shrink from 
atheism, as a violation of our moral being, as absurd and impious, lie far 
deeper, than those convictions of the mere undei-standing, " the faculty 
judging according to sense," which may have been derived from the argu- 
ment in question. — Am. Ed.] 

[62] p. 124. 
Virium et ])roprietatiun, quae non nisi de 6'u6stantibus predicari possunt, 
formis suj^erstantibus Attributio, est SurERsxiTio. 



NOTES. 295 

[53J p. 128. 



See pp. 42—44. 



[The reader is requested to connect with the subject of this Aphorism 
and Comment, also note 29, and the passage in the text at pp. 200 — ^218. 
To those, who wish to examine closely the creed of the author, it will be 
of use also to refer here to the whole article on Redemption, beginning at 
p. 184.— Am. Ed.] 

[54] p. 134. 

[The following is tlie passage refen-ed to in the text extracted from his 
firet Lay Sermon or the Statesman's Manual. — ^Am. Ed.] 

" In nothing is Scriptural history more strongly contrasted with tlie his- 
tories of highest note in the i)resent age, than in its freedom fiom the hol- 
lo wness of abstractions. While the latter present a shadow-fight of Things 
and Quantities, the former gives us the history of Men, and balances the 
impoitant influence of individual Minds with the previous state of the 
national morals and manners, in which, as constituting a specific suscep- 
tibility, it presents to us the ti'ue cause both of the Inuflence itself, and of 
the Weal or Woe that were its Consequents. How should it be other- 
wise ? The liistories and political economy of the present and preceding 
century partake in the general contagion of its mechanic philosophy, and 
are the product of an unenhvened generalizing Understanding. In the 
Scriptures they are the living educts of the Imagination ; of that reconci- 
ling and mediatory power, which incorporating the Reason in Images of 
the Sense, and organizing (as it were) the flux of the Senses by the per- 
manence and self-circling energies of the Reason, gives birth to a system 
of symbols, harmonious in themselves, and consubstantial with the truths, 
of which they are the coiiductors. These ai'e the Wheels which Ezekiel 
beheld, when the hand of the Lord was upon him, and he saw \isions of 
God as he sate among the captives by the river of Chebar. Whithersoever 
the Spiiit was to gOj the wheels weiU, and thither was their spirit to go : for 
the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels also. The trutlis and the 
symbols that represent them move in conjunction and form the living cha- 
riot that bears up (for us) the tlirone of the Divine Humanity. Hence, by 
a derivative, indeed, but not a divided, influence, and though in a second- 
ary yet in more than a metapliorical sense, the Sacred Book is wcrdiily 
intitled the word of god. Hence too, its contents present to us the stream 
of time continuous as Life and a symbol of Eternity, inasmuch as the 
Past and the Futui*e are virtually contained in the Present. According 
therefore to our relative position on its banks the Sacred Histoiy becomes 
})rophetic, the Sacred Prophecies historical, while the power and substance 
of both inhere in its Laws, its Promises, and its Comminations. In the 
Scriptures therefore both Facts and Persons must of necessity have a two- 



gp6 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

f{>ld significance, a past and a future, a temporary and a perpetual, a par- 
ticular and a universal application. They must be at once Portraits and 
Ideals, 

Eheu! paupertina philosophia in paupertinam religionem ducit: — A 
hunger-bitten and idea-less philosophy naturally produces a starveling and 
comfortless rehgion. It is among the miseries of the present age that it 
recognizes no medium between Literal and Metaphorical. Faith is ei- 
ther to be buried in the dead letter, or its name and honors usurped by 
a counterfeit product of the mechanical imderstanding, which in the 
blindness of self-complacency confounds symbols with allegories. Now 
an Allegory is but a ti-anslation of abstract notions into a picture-language 
which is itself nothing but an absti-action from objects of the senses ; the 
principal being more worthless even than its phantom proxy, both alike 
unsubstantial, and the former shapeless to boot. On the other hand a Sym- 
bol (6 hiv ati ruvTf^yopixoj) is characterized by a translucence of the Special 
in the Individual, or of the General in the Especial, or of the Universal in 
the General. Above all by the transhicence of the Eternal through and 
in the Temporal. It always partakes of the Reahty which it renders in- 
telligible ; and while it enunciates the whole, abides itself as a living part 
in that Unity, of which it is the representative. The other are but empty 
echoes which the fancy arbitrarily associates with apparitions of matter, 
less beautiful but not less shadowy than the sloping orchard or hill-side 
pasture-field seen in the transparent lake below. Alas ! for the flocks that 
are to be led forth to such pastures ! " It shall even he as when the hungry 
dreameth, and behold ! he eateth ; bid he waketh and his soul is empty : or as 
when the thirsty dreaineth, and behold he drinketh : but he awaketh and is faint /" 
(Isaiah xxix. 8.) O ! tliat we would seek for the bread which was given 
from heaven, that we should eat thereof and be strengthened ! O that we 
would draw at the well, at which the flocks of our forefathers had living 
water dra%\Ti for them, even that water which, instead of mocking the 
thirst of him to whom it was given, becomes a well within himself spiing- 
ing up to life everlasting ! 

When we reflect how large a part of our present knowledge and civil- 
ization is owing, directly or indu*ectly, to the Bible ; when we are com- 
pelled to admit, as a fact of history, that the Bible has been the main Lev- 
er by which the moral and intellectual character of Europe has been rais- 
ed to its present comparative height ; we should be struck, methinks, by 
the marked and prominent diflTerence of this Book from the works which it 
is now the fashion to quote as guides and authorities in morals, politics 
and histoiy. I will point out a few of the excellencies by which the one 
is distmguished, and shall leave it to your own judgment and recollection 
to perceive and apply the contrast to the productions of highest name in 
these latter days. In the Bible eveiy agent appeai-s aaid acts as a self-sub- 
sisting individual : each has a hfe of its own, and yet all are one lilfe. The 



NOTES. 297 

elements of necessity and free-will are reconciled in the higher power of 
an omnipresent Providence, that predestmates the whole in the moral 
freedom of the integral parts. Of this the Bible never suffei-s us to lose 
sight. The root is never detached from the ground. It is God every 
where : and all creatures conform to his decrees, the righteous by perfor- 
mance of the law, the disobedient by the sufferance of the penalty." 
[See also notes 33 and 66. — Am. Ed.] 

[55] p. 135. 
[The Essay in the Friend referred to in the text, will be found entire 
in note 59, and the Appendix to the Statesman's Manual, in the Appendix 
to tliis volume. — Am. Ed.] 

[56] p. 136. 

There is this advantage in the occasional use of a newly minted 
term or title expressing the doctiinal schemes of particular sects or parties, 
that it avoids the inconvenience that presses on either side, whether we 
adopt the name which the Party itself has taken up to express it's peculiar 
tenets by, or that by which the same Party is designated by its opponents. 
If we take the latter, it most often happens that either the persons are 
invidiously aimed at in the designation of the principles, or that the name 
implies some consequence or occasional accompaniment of the principles 
denied by the parties themselves, as apphcable to them collectively. On 
the other hand, convinced as I am, that cun-ent appellations are never 
wholly indifferent or inert ; and that, when employed to express the cha- 
racteristic BeUef or Object of a religious confederacy, they exert on the 
Many a great and constant, though insensible, influence ; I cannot but fear 
that in adopting the former I may be sacrificing the interests of Truth be- 
yond what the duties of courtesy can demand or justify. In a tract pubhshed 
in the year 1816, 1 have stated my objections to the word Unitarians ; as a 
name which in its proper sense can belong only to the Maintainers of the 
Truth impugned by the persons, who have chosen it as their designation. 
"For Unity or Unition, and indistinguishable Unicity or sameness, are 
incompatible tenns. We never speak of the Unity of Attraction, or the 
Unity of Repulsion ; but of the Unity of Attraction and Repulsion in each 
corpuscle. Indeed, the essential diversity of the conceptions, Unity and 
Sameness, was among the elementary principles of the old Logicians; and 
Leibnitz in his critique on Wissowatius has ably exposed the sophisms 
grounded on the confusion of the two terms. But in the exclusive sense, 
in which the name, Unitarian, is appropriated by the Sect, and in which 
they mean it to be understood, it is a presumptuous Boast and an unchari- 
table calumny. No one of the Churches to which they on this article of 
the Christian Faith stand opposed, Greek or Latin, ever adopted the term, 
Trini — or Tri-uni-tarians as then- ordinary and proper name : and had it 

38 



293 AIDS TO REFLECTIOX. 

been otherwise, yet Unity is assuredly no logical Opposite to Tri-uniiy, 
which expressly includes it. The triple Alliance is a fortiori Alliance. 
The true designation of their characteristic Tenet, and which would sim- 
ply and inoffensively express a fact admitted on all sides, is Psilaiithropism 
or the assertion of the mere humanity of Christ." 

I dare not hesitate to avow my regiet, that any scheme of doctrines or 
tenets should be the subject of penal law : though I can easily con- 
ceive, that any scheme, however excellent in itself, may be propagated, 
and however false or injurious, may be assailed, in a manner and by 
means that would make the Advocate or Assailant justly punishable. But 
then it is the mannei-, the means, that constitute the crim^. The merit or 
demerit of the Opinions themselves depends on their originating and de- 
termining causes, which may differ in every different Behever, and are 
certainly known to Him alone, who commanded us — Judge not, lest ye be 
judged. At all events, in the present state of the Law, I do not see where 
we can begin, or where we can stop, without inconsistency and conse- 
quent hardship. Judging by all that we can pretend to know or are en- 
titled to infer, who among us will take on himself to deny that the late 
Dr. Priestley was a good and benevolent man, as sincere in liis love, as he 
was intrepid and indefatigable in his pursuit, of Truth? Now let us con- 
struct three parallel tables, the fii-st containing the Articles of Belief, moral 
and theological, maintained by the venerable Hooker, as the representative 
of the Established Church, each article l)eing distinctly lined and number- 
ed; the second the Tenets and Persuasions of Lord Herbeit, as the repre- 
sentative of the platonizing Deists; and the third, those of Dr. Priesiley. 
Let the points, in which the second and third agree mth or differ from 
the first, be considered as to the comparative number modified by the 
comparative weight and importance of the several points — and let any 
competent and upright Man be appointed the Arbiter, to decide according 
to his best judgement, without any reference to the truth of the opinions, 
which of the two differed from the first more widely ! I say this, well 
aware that it would be abundantly more prudent to leave it unsaid. But 
I say it in the conviction, that the liberality in the adoption of admitted 
misnomers in the naming of doctrinal systems, if only they have been 
negatively legalized, is but an equivocal proof of hberality towards the 
persons who dissent from us. On the contraiy, I more than suspect that 
the former hberality does in too many men arise from a latent pre-dispo- 
sition to transfer their reprobation and intolerance from the Doctrines to 
the Doctoi-s, from the Belief to the Believers. Indecency, Abuse, Scoffing 
on subjects dear and a^vfuI to a multitude of our fellow-citizens — Appeals 
to the vanity, appetites, and malignant passions of ignorant and incompe- 
tent judges — these are flagrant overt-acts, condemned by the Law written 
in the heart of every honest man, Jew, Turk, and Christian. These are 
points respecting which the humblest honest man feels it his duty to hold 
himself infallible, and dares not hesitate in giving utterance to the verdict 



NOTES." 299 

of Ills conscience, in the Jury-box as fearlessly as by his fireside. It is far 
otherwise with respect to matters of faith and inwaixl conviction : and 
with respect to these I say — Tolerate no Belief, that you judge false and of 
injurious tendency :• and arraign no Believer. The Man is more and other 
than liis Belief: and God only knows, how small or how large a part of 
him the Belief in question may be, for good or for evil. Resist every 
false doctrine: and call no man heretic. The false doctrine do.es not 
necessarily make tlie man a heretic ; but an evil heart can make any doc- 
trine heretical. 

Actuated by these principles, I have objected to a false and deceptive 
designation in tlie case of one System. Pei-suaded, that the doctrines, 
enimierated in p. 127 — 128, are not only esseiUial to the Christian Religion, 
but those which contra-distinguish the rehgion as Chrisiian, I merely 
repeat this persuasion in an other form, when I assert, that (in my sense of 
the word, Christian) unitarianism is not Christianity. But do I say, tliat 
those, who call themselves Unitarians, are not Christians? God forbid' 
I would not think, much less promulgate, a judgement at once so pre- 
sumptuous and so uncharitable. Let a friendly antagonist retort on my 
scheme of faith, in the like manner: I shall respect him all the more for 
his consistency as a reasoner, and not confide the less in his kuidness 
towards me as his Neighbour and Fellow-christian. This latter and most 
endearing name I scarcely know how to withhold even from my friend, 
Htman Hurwitz, as often as I read wliat every Reverer of Holy Writ and 
of the English Bible ought to read, his admirable VmniciiE HEBRAicie! 
It has trembled on the verge, as it were, of my lips, eveiy time I have 
conversed with that pious, learned, strong-minded, and single-hearted Jew, 
an Israehtc indeed and without guile — 

Cujus cura sequi naturam, legibus uti, 
Et mentem vitiis, ora negare dolis ; 
Virtutes opibus, verum prseponere falso, 

Nil vacuum sensu dicere, nil facere. 
Post obitum \dvam secum, secum requiescam, 
Nee fiat melior sors mea sorte sua ! 

From a poem of Hildehert on Ms Master, 
the persecuted Berengarius. 

Under the same feelings I conclude this Aid to Reflection by appljdng 
the principle to another misnomer not less inappropriate and far more in- 
fluential. Of those, whom I have found most reason to respect and value, 
many have been members of the Church of Rome : aud certainly I did not 
honour those the least, who scrupled even in common parlance to call 
our Church a Refomied Church. A similar scruple would not, methinks, 
disgrace a protestant as to the use of the words, Catholic or Roman 
CathoUc ; and if (tacitly at least, and in thought) he remembered that the 



300 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Romish Anti-catholic Church would more truly express the fact. — Romish, 
to mark that the corruptions in discipline, doctrine, and practice do, for the 
far larger part, owe both their origin and perpetuation to the Romish 
Courtf and the local Tribunals of the City of Rome ; and neitlier are or ev- 
er have been Catholic, i. e. univei-sal, throughout the Roman Empire, or 
even in tlie whole Latin or Western Church — and .^n/i-catholic, because 
no other Church acts on so narrow and excommunicative a principle, or 
is characterized by such a jealous spirit of monopoly. Instead of a Cath- 
olic (universal) spirit it may be ti'uly described as a spirit of particularism 
counterfeiting CathoUcity by a negative totality and heretical self-circum- 
scription — ^in the first instances cutting off, and since then cutting herself 
off from, all the other members of Christ's Body. For the rest, I think 
as that man of true catholic spirit and apostolic zeal, Richard Baxter, 
thought; and my readers will thank me for conveyhig my reflections in his 
own words, in the following golden passages firom his Life, "faithfully pub- 
lished from his own original MSS. by Mathew Sylvester, 1696." 

" My censures of the Baptists do much differ from what they were 
at first. I then thought, that their errors in the doctrines of faith were 
their most dangerous mistakes. But now I am assured that their misex- 
pressions and misunderstanding us, with our mistakes of them and incon- 
venient expressions of our own opinions, have made the difference in 
most points appear much gi-eater than it is ; and that in some it is next to 
none at all. But the great and unreconcilable differences lie in their 
Church Tyranny ; in the usui^pations of their Hierarchy, and Priesthood, 
under the name of spuitual authority exercising a temjioral Lordship ; 
in their corruptions and abasement of God's Worship, but above all in their 
systematic befriending of Ignorance and Vice. 

" At first I thought that Mr. Perkins well proved, that a Baptist cannot 
go beyond a reprobate ; but now I doubt not that God hath many sancti- 
fied ones among them who have received the true doctrine of Christianity 
so practically that their contradictory errors are like a conquerable dose of 
poison which a healthfid nature doth overcome. And I can never believe 
that a man may not he saved by that religion, which doth but hing him to the 
true,love of God and to a heavenly mind and life : nor that God vnU ever cast 
a Sovl into hell, that truly loveth him. Also ,at first it Avould disgi-ace any 
doctrine with me if I did but hear it called Popery and anti-chiistian ; 
but I have long learned to be more impartial, and to know that Satan can 
use even the names of Popery and Antichrist, to bring a truth into sus- 
picion and discredit." — Baxter's Life, part I. p. 131. 

[57] p. 143. 

According as we attend more or less to the differences, the Sort becomes, 
of course, more or less comprehensive. Hence there arises for the system- 
atic Naturalist the necessity of subdividing the Sorts hito Orders, Classes, 



NOTES. 301 

Families, &c. : all which, however, resolve themselves for the mere Logi- 
cian into the conception of Genus and Species, i. e. the comprehending, 
and the comprehended. 

[68] p. 144. 

Were it not so, how could the first comparison have been possible ? It 
would involve the absurdity of measuring a thing by itself. But if we fix on 
some one thing, the lengtli of our own foot, or of our hand and ami from 
the elbow joint, it is evident that in order to do this we must have the con- 
ception of Measure. Now these antecedent and most general Conceptions 
are what is meant by the constituent /orww of the Understanding : we call 
them constituent because they are not acquired by the Understanding, but 
are impUed in its constitution. As rationally might a Circle be said to ac- 
quire a centre and circumference, as the Understanding to acquire these 
its inherent forms^ or ways of conceiving. This is what Leibnitz meant, 
when to the old adage of the Peripatetics, Nihil fai intellectii quod non 
prius in Sensu ( There is nothing in the Understanding not derived from 
tlio Senses, or — There is nothing co?iceived that was not previously per- 
ceived); he replied — praeter intellectum' ipsum (except tlie understanding 
itself). 

And here let me remark for once and all: whoever would reflect to any 
pui-jjose — whoever is in earnest in his pursuit of Self-knowledge, and of 
one of the principal means to this, an insight into the meaning of the 
words he uses and the different meanings properly or improperly conveyed 
by one and the same word, accordhig as it is used in the Schools or the 
Market, according as the kind or a high degree is intended (ex. gr. Heat, 
Weigh*, &c. as employed scientifically, compared with the same word 
used popularly — ^whoever, I say, seriously proposes this as his Object, 
must so far overcome his dislike of pedantiy, and his dread of being sneered 
at as a Pedant, as not to quarrel with an uncouth word or phrase, till he is 
quite sure that some other and more familiar would not only have expressed 
the precise meaning with equal clearness, but have been as likely to draw 
his attention to this meaning exclusively. The ordinary language of a 
Philosopher in conversation or popular writings, compared with the lan- 
guage he uses in strict reasoning, is as his Watch compared with the 
Chronometer in his Observatory. He sets the fornier by the Town-clock, 
or even, perhaps, by the Dutch clock in his kitchen, not because he be- 
lieves it right, but because his neighbours and his Cookg-o by it. To af- 
ford the reader an opportunity for exercising the forbearance here recom- 
mended, I turn back to the phrase, "most general Conceptions," and ob- 
serve, that in strict and severe propriety of language I should have said 
generali/ic or generiflc rather than general, and Concipiences or Conceptive 
Acts rather tlian conceptions. 
It is an old Complaint, that a Man of Genius no sooner appcai-s, 



302 AIDS TO BEFLECTIOPf. 

J>ut the Host of Dunces are up in arms to repel the mvading AUen. Tliis 
observation would have made more converts to its truth, I suspect, had it 
l>een worded more dispassionately, and with a less contemirtuous antithe- 
sis. For " Dunces" let us substitute " the Many,'" or the '' oito; y.oauog'' 
[litis loorld) of the Apostle, and we shall perhaps find no great difficulty m 
accounting for the fact. To amve at the root^ indeed, and last Ground of 
tlie problem, it would be necessary to investigate the nature and effects 
of the sense of Difference on the human mind where it is not held in 
check by Reason and Reflection. We need not go to the savage tiibes of 
North America, or the yet ruder Natives of the Indian Isles, to learn how 
shght a degree of Difference will, in uncultured minds, call up a sense of 
Diversity, an inward perplexity and contradiction, as if the Strangers 
were and yet were not of the same kind with themselves. Who has not 
had occasion to observe tlie effect which the gesticulations and nasal tones 
of a Frenchman produce on our' own Vulgar? Here we may see the 
origin and primaiy import of om- " Unkindness.^'* It is a sense of Unkind, 
and not the mere negation but the positive Opposite of the sense of kind. 
Alienation, aggravated now by fear, now by contempt, and not seldom by 
a mixture of both, aversion, hatred, enmity, are so many successive shapes 
of its growth and metamorphosis. In application to the present case, it is 
sufficient to say, that Pindai*'s remark on sweet Music holds equally true 
of Genius : as many as are not delighted by it are disturbed, perplexed, 
initated. The beholder either recognizes it as a projected Form of liis 
own Being, that moves before him with a Gloiy round its head, or recoils 
from it as from a Spectre. But this speculation would lead us too far; we 
must be content with having referred to it as the ultimate ground of the 
fact, and pass to the more obvious and })roximate causes. And as the first 
I would rank the person's not understanding what yet he expects to un- 
derstand, and as if he had a right to do so. An original IMathematical 
Work, or any other that requires peculiar and (so to say) technical marks 
and symbols, will excite no uneasy feelings — ^not m the mind of a compe 
tent Reader, for he understands it ; and not with othei*s, because tliey nei 
iher expect nor are expected to understand it. The second place we may 
assign to the JViisunderstanding, which is almost sure to follow in cases 
where the incompetent person, finding no outward marks (Diagrams, ar- 
bitraiy signs, and the like) to inform him at first sight, that the subject is 
one which he does not pretend to understand, and to be ignorant of which 
does not deti-act from his estimation as a man of abihties generally, imll 
attach some meaning to what lie hears or reads ; and as he is out of hu- 
mour with the Author, it will most often be such a meaning as he can 
quarrel with and exhibit in a ridiculous or offensive point 6f view. 

But above all, the whole World almost of Minds, as far as regards intel- 
lectual efforts, may be divided into two classes of the Busy-indolent and 
Lazy-indolent. To both alike all Thinking is painful ; and all attempts to 
rouse them to think, whether in the re-examination of their existing Con- 



NOTES. 303 

victions, or for tho reception of new light, are irritating. "It nmy all be 
veiy deep and clever ; but really one ought to be quite sure of it before 
one wrenches onp's brain to find out what it is. I take up .a Book as a 
Companion, with whom I can have an easy cheerful chit-chat on what we 
both know beforehand, or else matters of fact. In our leisure hours wc 
have a right to relaxation and amusement." 

Well ! but in their studious hours, when their Bow is to be bent, when 
they are apud MusaSy or amidst the Muses ? Alas ! it is just the same 1 
The same craving for amusement i. e. to be away from the Muses ! for re- • 
laxaiion, i. e. the unbending of a Bow which in fact had never been strung ! 
There ai*e two ways of obtaining their applause. The first is : Enable 
them to reconcile in one and the same occupation the love of Sloth and the 
hatred of vacancy ! Gratify indolence, and yet save them from Ennui — 
in plain English, from themselves! For, spite of their antipathy to dinj rea- 
ding, the keeping company with themselves is, after all, the insufferable 
annoyance : and the true secret of their dislilce to a work of Thought and 
Inquiry lies in its tendency to make them acquainted with their own per- 
manent Being. The other road to their favour is to introduce to them 
their own thoughts and predilections, tricked out in the Jine language, in 
which it would gratify their vanity to express them in their own conver- 
versation, and with which they can imagine themselves shoiving off": and 
tliis (as has been elsewhere remarked) is the characteristic difference be- 
tween the second-rate Writers of the last two or three generations, and 
the same class under Elizabeth and the Stuarts. In the latter we find the 
most far-fetched and singular thoughts in the simj)lest and most native 
language ; in the former the most obvious and common-place thoughts in 
the most far-fetched and motley language. But lasdy, and as the sine qua 
non of their patronage, a sufficient arc must be left for the Reader's mind 
to oscillate in — freedom of choice, 

To make the shifting cloud be what you please, 
save only where the attraction of Curiosity determines the line of Motion 
The Attention must not be fastened down : and this every work of Gen- 
ius, not simply narrative, must do before it can be justly appreciated. 

In former times a popular work meant one that adapted the results of 
studious Meditation or scientific Reseai'ch to the capacity of the People, 
presenting in the Concrete, by instances and examples, what had been as- 
certained in the Abstract and by disco veiy of the Law. JS/ow on the other 
hand, that is a popular Work which gives back to the People their own 
errors and prejudices, and flatters the Many by creating them, under the 
title of THE PUBLIC, into a supreme and inappellable Tribunal of intellectu- 
al Excellence. P. S. In a continuous work, the fi-equent insertion and 
length of Notes would need an Apology : in a book of Aphorisms and de- 
tached Comments none is necessary, it being understood beforehand, that 
the Sauce and the Garnish are to occupy the greater part of the Dish. 

S. T. C. 



304 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

[59] p. 145. 

Take a familiar illustration. My Sight and Touch convey to me a 
certain impression, to which my Understanding applies it's pre-conceptions 
[concepttis antecedentes et generalissimi) of Quantity and Relation, and thus 
refers it to the Class and Name of three-cornered Bodies — ^we will sup- 
pose it the Iron of a Turf-spade . It compares the sides, and finds that 
any two measured as one are greater than the third ; and according to a 
law of the imagination, there arises a presumption that in all other Bodies 
of the same figure(i. e. three-cornered and equilateral) the same proportion 
exists. After this, the senses have been directed successively to a number 
of three-cornered bodies of unequal sides — and in these too the same pro- 
portion has been found without exception till at length it becomes a 
fact of experience, that in cdl Triangles,- hitherto seen, the two sides are 
greater than the third : and there will exist no ground or analogy for an- 
ticipating an exception to a Rule, generalized from so vast a number of 
particular instances. So far and no farther could the Understanding carry 
us : and as far as this " the faculty, judging according to sense," conducts 
many of the inferior animals, if not in the same, yet instances analogous 
and fully equivalent 

The Reason supersedes the whole process : and on the first conception 
presented by the Understanding in consequence of the first sight of a tri- 
angular Figure, of whatever sort it might chance to be, it affirms with an 
assurance incapable of future increase, with a perfect certainty, that in all 
possible Triangles any two of the inclosing Lines ivill and must be greater 
than the third. In short, Understanding in its highest form of Experience 
remains commensurate with the experimental notices of the senses, fi-om 
which it is generalized. Reason, on the other hand, either predetermines 
Experience, or avails itself of a past Experience to supersede its necessity 
in all future time ; and affirms truths which no Sense could perceive, nor 
Experiment verify, nor Experience confirm. 

Yea, this is the test and character of a truth so affirmed, that in its own 
proper fonn it is inconceivable. For to conceive is a function of the Under- 
standing, which can be exercised only on subjects subordinate thereto. 
And yet to the forms of the Understanding all truth must be reduced, that 
is to be fixed as an object of reflection, and to be rendered expressible. 
And here we have a second test and sign of a truth so affirmed, that it can 
come forth out of the moulds of the Understanding only in the disguise of 
two conti'adictory conceptions, each of which is partially true, and the 
conjunction of both conceptions becomes the representative or expression 
(=:the exponent) of a truth beyond concei)tion and inexpressible. Exam- 
ples. Before Abraham tvas, I am. — God is a Circle whose centre is every 
where and circumference no where. — The Soul is all in every part. 

If this appear extravagant, it is an extravagance which no man can in- 
deed learn from another, but which (were this possible) I might have 



NOTES. oUO 

learnt from Plato, Kepler, and Bacon; from Luther, Hooker, Pascal, 
Leibnitz, and Fenelon. But in this last pai-agraph I have, I see, un- 
wittingly overetepped my purpose, according to which we were to tako 
Reason as a smiply intellectual power. Yet even as such, and with all 
the disadvantage of a technical and arbitrary Abstraction, it has been 
made evident — 1. that there is an intuition or iwimediate Beholding, ac- 
companied by a conviction of the necessity and universaUty of the truth 
so beheld not derived from the Senses, which Intuition, when it is con- 
strued by pure Sense, gives buth to the Science of Mathematics, and when 
applied to Objects supersensuous or spiritual, is the Organ of Theology 
and Philosophy; — and 2. that there is likewise a reflective and discursive 
Faculty, or mediate Apprehension, which, taken by itself and uninfluenced 
by the former, depends on the Senses for the Materials on which it is 
exercised, and is contained within the Sphere of the Senses. And this 
Faculty it is, which, in generahzing the Notices of the Senses, constitutes 
Sensible Experience, and gives rise to Maxims or Rules, which may 
become more and more general^ but can never be raised to universal 
Verities, or beget a consciousness of absolute Certainty ; though they may 
be sufl[icient to extinguish all doubt. (Putting Revelation out of view, 
take our first Progenitor in the 50th or 100th year of his existence. His 
Experience would probably have freed him from all doubt, as the Sun 
sunk in the Horizon, that it would re-appear the next morning. But com- 
pare this state of Assurance with that which the same man would have 
had of the 37th Proposition of Euclid, supposing him like Pythagoras to 
have discovered the Demonstration). Now is it expedient, I ask, or con- 
formable to the laws and purposes of Language, to call two so altogether 
disparate Subjects by one and the same name ? Or, having two names 
in our language, should we call each of the two diverse subjects by both 
— 1. e. by either name, as caprice might dictate ? If not, then as we have 
the two words. Reason and Understanthng (as indeed what Language of 
cultivated Man has not?) what should prevent us from appropriating the 
former to the Power distinctive of Humanity ? We need only place the 
derivatives fi'om the two terms in opposition {ex. gr. "A and B are both 
rational Beings ; but there is no comparison between them in point of 
intelligence,^^ or " SJie always concludes j-ationallij, though not a Woman of 
much Understanding^^) to see, that we cannot reverse the order — i. e, call the 
higher Gift Understanding, and the lower, Reason. What should prevent 
us — I asked. Alas! that which has prevented us — the cause of this confu- 
sion in the terms — is only too obvious : viz. inattention to the momentous 
distinction in the things, and (generally) to tlie duty and habit recommend- 
ed in the Vth Introductory Aphorism of this Volume, [see p. 2.) But the 
cause of this, and of all its lamentable Effects and Subcauses, "false doc- 
trme, bhndness of Heart and contempt of the Word," is best declared by the 
philosophic Apostle : "they did not like to retain God in their knowledge," 

39 



306 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

(Rom. L 28,) and though thoy could not extinguish " the Light that hghteth 
every man,''^ and which " shone in the Darkness ;" yet because the Dark 
ness could not comprehend the Light, they refused to bear witness of the 
Light, and worshipped, instead, the shapmg Mist, which the Light had 
drawn upward from the Ground (i. e. from the mere Animal nature and 
instinct), and which that Light alone had made visible (t. c. by super-indu- 
cing on the animal instinct the principle of Self-consciousness). 

[The subject of the Comment to which this note is attached, and of the 
note itself, I consider, and it is indeed represented by the author, as very 
essential to the right apprehension of the whole system. The distinction 
between reason and the understanding, and that between nature and the 
free-will, are indeed the ground of all that is most peculiar and important 
in the author's views ; and I have wished particularly to aid the reader, as 
far as may be, in obtaining a distinct notion of their import. The passages, 
which best illustrate the latter distinction, were referred to in note 29 ; and 
I propose to bring together, here, the means of illustrating the former, bo 
far as I can well find them in the w^orks of the author. The following Es- 
say is the one referred to, p. 135 and note 55, and is from the Friend, vol. 
1, p. 2(53 — ^277. In connexion with it the reader is requested to peruse 
note [C] in the appendix to the Statesman's Manual, near the end of this 
volume. See also note 43^ and the references there made, and note 66.j 

"In tlie Appendix to his first Lay Sermon, the Author has indeed treat- 
ed tlie question at considerable length, but chiefly in relation to the heights 
of Theology and Metaphysics. In tlie next number he attempts to ex- 
plain himself more popularly, and trusts that with no great expenchture of 
attention the reader will satisfy his mind, that our remote ancestoi-s spoke 
as men acquainted with the constituent parts of their own moral and in- 
tellectual being, when they described one man as being out of his senses^ 
anotlier as oui of his wits, or deranged in his understanding, and a third as 
having lost his reason. Observe, the understanding may be deranged, weak- 
ened, or perverted; but the reason is either lost or not lost, that is, wholly 
present or wholly absent." 

ESSAY. 

Man may rather be defined a rehgious than a rational character, in re- 
gard that in other creatures there may be something of Reason, but there 
is nothing of Rehgion. Harrington. 

If the Reader will substitute the word " Understanding" for "Reason," 
and the word "Reason" for "Religion," Harrington has here completely 
expressed the Truth for which the Friend is contending. But that this 
was Hanington's meaning is evident. Otherwise instead of comparing 
two faculties witli each other, he would contrast a faculty with one of its 
own objects, which would involve the same absurdity as if he had said, 



\ 



NOTE«. 



S07 



thJat man might rather be defined an astronomical than a seeing animal, 
because other animals possessed the sense of Sigiit, Ijut Were incapable 
of l)eholding tlie satellites of Saturn, or the nebulae of fixed stare. If 
further confirmadon Ije neceseaiy, it may be supplied by the following re- 
flection, the leading thought of which I remember to have read in tho 
works of a continental Philosopher. It shotild seem easy to give tlie de- 
finite distinction of the Reason from the Understanding, because we con- 
stantly imply it when we speak of the difference betwieen ourselv^ and 
the brute creation. No one, except as a figure of speech, ever s{>eaks of 
aa animal reason f" but that many animals possess a share of Understand- 
ing, perfectly distinguishable from mere Instinct, we all allow. Few persons 
have a favorite dog without making instances of its intelligence an occa- 
sional topic of conversation. They call for our admiration of the individ- 
ual animal, and not with exclusive reference to the Wisdom in Nature, as 
in the case of the storgk or maternal instinct of beasts ; or of the heiaii- 
gular cells of the bees, and tlxe wonderful coincidence of this fomi with 
the geometrical demonstration of the largest possible number of rooms in 
a given space. Likewise, we distinguish various degrees of Understanding 
there, and even discover, from inductions supplied by the Zoologists, tljat 
the Understanding appears (as a general rule) in an inverse proportion to 
the Instinct. We hear little or nothing of the instincts of "the half-rea- 
soning elephant," and as httle of the Understanding of Cater})illars and 
Butterflies. (N. B. Though reasoning does not in our language, in the 
lax use of words natural in conversation or popular Avritings, imply scien- 
tific conclusion, yet the phrase "half-reasoning" is evidently used by Pope 
as a poetic hyperbole.) But reason is wholly denied, equally to the high- 
est as to the lowest of the brutes ; otlienvise it must be wholly attributed 
to them, and with it therefore Self-consciousness, and persontditi/, or IMoral 
Being." 
I should have no objection to define Reason %vith Jacobi, and with his 

*I have this moment looked over a Translation of Blumenbach's Plivsi- 
ology by Dr. Elliotson, which forms a glaiing exception, p. 45. I do not 
know Dr. Elliolson, but I do know Professor Blumenbach, and was an as- 
siduous attendant on the Lecmres, of which this classical work was the 
text-book : and I know that that good and great man woidd start back 
with surprise and indignation at the gross materiaUsm morticed on to his 
work : the more so because during the whole |>eriod, in which the identi- 
fication of Man with the Brute in kind was the fashion of NaturaUsts, Blu- 
menbach remained ardent and instant in controvertijig the opmion, and 
exjwsing its fallacy and falsehood, both as a man of sense and as a Natu- 
ralist. I may truly say, that it was uppermost in his heart and foremost in 
his speech. Therefore, and from no hostile feeling to Dr. Elliotson (whom 
I hear spoken of with great regard and respect, and to whom I mvsplf 
give credit for his manly openness in the avowal of his opinions) I have f«lt 
the present animadversion a duty of justice as well as gratitude. 

S. T. C.S April, 1817. 



308 AIDS TO REFLECTIOIC. 

friend Hemsterhuis, as an organ bearing the same relation to spiritual ob- 
jects, the Universal, the Eternal, and the Necessaiy, as the eye bears to 
material and contingent phaenomcna. But then it must be added, that it 
is an organ identical with its appropriate objects. Thus, God, the Soiil, 
eternal Truth, &c. are the objects of Reason ; but they are themselves 
reason. We name God the Supreme Reason ; and Milton says, " Whence 
the Soul Reason receives, and Reason is her Being." Whatever is 
conscious 5'e?/^knowledge is Reason ; and in this sense it may be safely 
defined the organ of the Supersensuous ; even as the Understanding 
wherever it does not possess or use the Reason, as another and inward 
eye, may be defined the conception of the Sensuous, or the faculty by 
which we generalize and arrange the phsenomena of perception : that fac- 
ulty, the functions of which contain the rules and constitute the possibiHty 
of outward Experience. In short, the Understanding supposes something 
that is imderstood. This may be merely its own acts or forms, that is, for- 
mal Logic ; but real objects, the materials of substantial knowledge, must 
be furnished, we might safely say revealed^ to it by Organs of Sense. The 
understanding of the higher Brutes has only organs of outwai-d sense, and 
consequently material objects only ; but man's understanding has likewise 
an organ of inward sense, and therefore the power of acquainting itself 
with mvisible reahties or spiritual objects. This organ is his Reason. 
Again, the Understanding and Experience may exist^ without Reason. 
But Reason cannot exist without Understanding ; nor does it or can it ma- 
nifest itself but in and through the understanding, which in our elder wri- 
ters is ofl;en called discourse, or the discursive faculty, as by Hooker, Lord 
Bacon, and Hobbes : and an understanding enlightened by reason Shaks- 
pear gives as the contra-distinguishing character of man, under the name 
discourse of reason. In short, the human understanding possesses two dis- 
tinct organs, the outward sense, and "the mind's eye" which is reason: 
wherever we use that phrase (the mind's eye) in its proper sense, and not 
as a mere synonyme of tlie memoiy or the fancy. In this way we recon- 
cile tlie promise of Revelation, that the blessed will see God, with tlie de- 
clai'atioji of St. John, God hath no one seen at any time. 

We will add one other illustration to prevent any misconception, as if 
Ave were dividing the human soul into different essences, or ideal persons. 
In this piece of steel I acknowledge tlie propeities of hai'dness, brittleness, 



*Of this no one would feel inclined to doubt, who had seen the poodle 
dog, whom the celebrated Blumexbach, a name so dear to science, as a 
physiologist and Comparative Ajiatomist, and not less dear as a man, to 
all Englishmen who have ever resided at Gottingen in the coui-se of their 
education, trained uj), not only to hatch tiie eggs of the hen with all the 
mother's care and i)atience, but to attend the chickens afterwards, and find 
the food for them. I have myself known a Newfoundland dog who 
watched and guarded a family of young children with all the intelligence 
of a nurse, during their walks. 



NOTES. 309 

high polish, and the capability of forming a miiTor. I find all these like- 
wise in the plate glass of a friend's carriage ; but in adilition to all these, I 
find the quality of transparency, or the power of transmitting as well as of 
reflecting the rays of light. The application is obvious. 

If the I reader therefore will take the trouble of bearing in mind these 
and the following explanations, he will have removed beforehand every 
possible difficulty from the Friend's political section. For there is another 
use of the word. Reason, arising out of the former indeed, l>ut less de- 
fimteTHhd more exposed to misconception. In this latter use it means the 
understanding considered as using the Reason, so far as by the organ of 
Reason only we possess the ideas of the Necessary and the Universal ; 
and this is the more common use of the word, when it is applied with any 
attempt at clear and distinct conceptions. In this narrower and derivative 
sense the best definition of Reason, which I can give, will be found in the 
third member of the following sentence, in which the understanding is 
described hi its three-fold operation, and from each receives an appropri- 
ate name. The Sense, (vis sensitiva vel intuitiva) perceives : Vis regula- 
trix (the understanding, in its own peculiar operation) conceives: Vis ra- 
tionalis (the Reason or rationalized understanding) comprehends. The first 
is impressed through the organs of sense ; the second combines these mul- 
tifarious impressions into individual JVbtioiiSy and by reducing these notions 
to Rules, according to the analogy of all its former notices, constitutes Ex- 
perience ; tlie third subordinates both these notions and the rules of Ex- 
perience to ABSOLUTE PRINCIPLES or ncccssaiy Laws : and thus, concern- 
ing objects, which our experience has proved to have real existence, it de- 
monstrates, moreover, in what way they are possible, and in doing this con- 
stitutes Science. Reason, therefore, in this secondary sense, and used not 
as a spiritual Organ but as a Faculty (namely, the Understanding or Soul 
enlightened by that organ) — Reason, I say, or the scientific Faculty, is the 
Intellection of the possibility or essential properties of things by means of 
the Laws that constitute them. Thus the rational idea of a Circle is that 
of a figure constituted by the circumvolution of a straight line with its one 
end fixed. 

Every man must feel, that though he may not be exerting different fac- 
ulties, he is exerting his faculties in a different way, when in oiie instance 
he begins with some one self-evident truth, (that the radii of a circle, for 
instance, are all equal,) and in consequence of this being true sees at once 
without any actual experience, that some other thing must be true likewise 
and that, this being true, some third thing must be equally true, and so on 
till he conies, we will say, to the properties of the lever, considered as tlie 
spoke of a circle ; which is capable of having all its marvellous powers 
demonstrated even to a savage who had never seen a lever, and without 
supposing any other [)revious knowledge in his mind, but this one, tliat 
there is a conceivable figure, all possible lines fi-om the middle to the cir- 
cumference of which are of the same length : or when, hi the second in- 



310 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Stance, he brings together the facts of experience, each of which has its 
o^^'n separate value, neither encreased nor diminished by the truth of any 
other fact which may have preceded it : and making these several facts 
bear upon some paiticular project, and finding some in favour of it, and 
some against it, determines for or against the project, according as one or 
the other class of facts preponderate : as, for instance, whether it would 
be better to plant a particular spot of ground with larch, or with Scotch 
fir, of with oak in preference to either. Surely every man will acknowl- 
edge, that his mind was very diflferently employed in the first case from 
what it was in the second ; and all men have agreed to call the results of 
the first class the truths of sdenccy such as not only are true, but which it 
is impossible to conceive otherwise : while the results of the second class 
are called fads, or things of experience ; and as to these latter we must 
often content ourselves %viih the greater probabUUy, that they are so, or so, 
rather than otherwise — ^nay, even when we have no doubt that they are so 
in the paiticular case, we never presume to assert that they must continue 
60 always, and under all circumstances. On the contrary, our conclusions 
depend altogether on contingent circwnstances. Now when the mind is 
employed as in the case firet-mentioned, I call it Reasoning, or the use of 
the pure Reason ; but, in the second case, the Understanding or Prudence. 
This Reason appUed to the motives of our conduct, and combined with 
the sense of our moral responsibihty, is the conditional cause of Conscience, 
which is a spiritual sense or testifying state of the coincidence or discord- 
ance of the FREE WILL With the Reason. But as the reasoning consists 
wholly in a man's power of seeing, whether any two ideas, which happen 
to be in his mind, are, or are not, in contradiction \vith each other, it fol- 
lows of necessity, not only that all men have reason, but that every man 
has it in the same degi-ee. For Reasoning (or Reason, in this its secondary 
sense) does not consist in the Ideas, or in their clearness, but simply, when 
they are in the mind, in seeing whether they contradict each other or no. 

And again, as in the determinations of Conscience the only knowledge 
required is that of my own intention — whether in doing such a thing, in- 
stead of leaving it undone, I did what I should think right if any other 
person had done it ; it follows that in the mere question of guilt or inno- 
cence, all men have not only Reason equally, but likewise all the materi- 
als on which the reason, considered as Conscience, is to work. But when 
we pass out of ourselves, and speak, not exclusively of the agent as mean- 
ing well or ill, but of the action in its consequences, then of course expe- 
rience is required, judgment in making use of it, and all those other qual- 
ities of the mind which are so differently dispensed to different persons, 
botli by nature and education. And though the reason itself is the same in 
all men, yet the means of exercising it, and the materials (i. e. the facts 
and Ideas) on which it is exercised, being possessed in vei-}- different de- 
grees by diflferent persons, the practical Restdt is, of course, equally diflfer- 



NOTES. 311 

ent — and the whole ground work of Rousseau's Philosophy ends in a 
mere Nothingism. — Even in that branch of knowledge, on which the ideas, 
on the congruity of which with each other the Reason is to decide, are 
all possessed alike by all men, namely, in Geometry, (for all men in their 
senses possess all the component images, viz. simple curves and straight 
lines) yet the power of attention required for the perception of linked Truths, 
even of 5mcA Truths, is so very different in A and in B, that Sir Isaac New- 
ton professed that it was in this power only that he was superior to ordi- 
nary men. In short, the sophism is as gross as if I should say — The Souls 
of all men have the faculty of sight in an e^woZ degree — forgetting to add, 
that tliis faculty cannot be exercised without eyes, and that some men 
are blind and others short-sighted, &c. — and should then take advantage 
of this my omission to conclude against the use or necessity of spectacles, 
microscopes, &c. — or of choosing the sharpest sighted men for our guides. 
Having exposed this gross sophism, I must warn against an opposite er- 
ror — ^namely, that if Reason, as distinguished from Prudence, consists 
merely m knowing that Black cannot be White — or when a man has a 
clear conception of an inclosed figure, and another equally clear concep- 
tion of a straight line, his Reason teaches him that these two conceptions 
are incompatible in the same object, i. e. that two straight lines cannot in- 
clude a space the said Reason must be a veiy insigni/icaivt faculty. 

But a moment's steady self-reflection will shew us, that in tlie simple de- 
termination "Black is not White" — or, "that two straight lines cannot in 
elude a space" — all the powers are implied, that distinguish Man from An- 
imals — ^first, tlie power of reflection — ^2d. of comparison — 3d. and therefore 
of suspension of the mind — 4th. therefore of a controlling will, and the 
power of acting from notions, instead of mere images exciting appetites ; 
from motives, and not from mere dark instincts. Was it an insignificant 
thing to weigh the Planets, to determine all their coui-ses, and prophecy 
every possible relation of the Heavens a thousand yeai*s hence ? Yet all 
this mighty chain of science is nothing but a linking together of truths of 
the same kind, as, the whole is gi'eater than its part : — or, if A and B r=C, 
then A = B — or3-f-4 = 7, therefore 7-J-5 =: 12, and so forth. X is to 
be found either in A or B, or C or D r It is not found in A, B, or C, there- 
fore it is to be found in D. — What can be simpler ? Apply this to an an- 
imal — a Dog misses his master where four roads meet — he has come up 
one, smells to two of the others, and then with his head aloft darts for- 
ward to the third road without any exam'mation. If this was done by a 
conclusion, the Dog would have Reason — how comes it then, that he never 
shews it in his ordinary habits ? Why does this stoiy excite either won- 
der or incredulity ? — If the stoiy be a fact, and not a fiction, I should say — 
the Breeze brought his Master's scent down the fourth Road to the Dog's 
nose, and that there/ore he did not put it down to the Road, as in the two 
former instances. So awful and almost miraculous does the simple act of 



312 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

concluding, that take 3 from 4, there remains oney appear to us when attri- 
buted to the most sagacious of all animals." 

The next extract is from the Friend, vol. 1. pp. 187 — 188, and gives in 
few words the author's view of the subject treated of in note 51. 

" God created man in his own image. To be the image of his own 
eternity created he man ! Of eternity and self-existence what other like- 
ness is possible in a jfinite being, but immortality and moral self-determin- 
ation ! In addition to sensation, perception, and practical judgment (in- 
sthictive or acquirable) concerning the notices furnished by the organs of 
perception, all which in kind at least, the dog possesses in common with 
his master ; in addition to these, God gave us reason, and with reason he 
gave us reflective self-consciousness ; gave us principles, distinguish- 
ed from the maxims and generalizations of outward experience by their 
absolute and essential universality and necessity ; and above all, by super- 
adding to reason the mysterious faculty of fiee-will and consequent per- 
sonal amenability, he gave us conscience — ^that law of conscience, which 
in the power, and as tlie indwelling word, of an holy and omnipotent le- 
gislator, commands us — from among the numerous ideas mathematical and 
philosophical, which the reason by the necessity of its own excellence 
creates for itself— unconditionally commands us to attribute reality^ and actual 
existence^ to those ideas and to those only, without which the conscience 
itself would be baseless and contradictor}' — to the ideas of Soul, of Free- 
will, of Immortality, and of God ! 

To God, as the reality of the conscience and the source of all obliga- 
tion ; to Free-will, as the power of the human being to maintain the obe- 
dience, which God through the conscience has commanded, against all 
the might of nature ; and to the Immortality of the Soul, as a state in 
which the weal and woe of man shall be propoitioned to liis moral wortli. 

With this faitli all nature, 

• all the mighty world 



Of eye and ear- 



presents itself to us, now as the aggi-egated material of duty, and now as a 
vision of the Most High revealing to us the mode, and time, and })articu- 
lar instance of applying and realizing that universal nile, pre-established in 
the heait of our reason !" 

The following passages are from the first Lay Sermon, pp. 21 — ^24, 28 — 30 
and 02— ()4 : 

"The Hebrew legislator, and the other insj)ired poets, prophets, histori- 
ans and moralists of the Jewish church have two immense advantages in 
their favor. First, their particular rules and prescripts flow directly and 
visibly from universal principles, as from a fountain : they flow from prin- 
ciples and ideas that arc not so properly said to be confirmed by reason as 
to be reason itself! Principles, in act and procession, disjoined from which. 



NOTES. 



313 



and from the emotions that inevitably accompany tlie actual intuition of 
their truth, tlie widest maxims of prudence are like arms without hearts^ 
nuiscles without nerves. Secondly, from the veiy nature of these princi- 
ples, as taught ui tlie Bible, they are understood m exact proportion as tliey 
are behoved and felt. The regulator is never separated from the main 
spring. For the words of the apostle are hterally and philosophically true : 
We (that is, the human race) live by faith. Whatever we do or know, 
that in kind is different from the brute creation, has its origin in a deter- 
mination of the reason to have faith and trust in itself. This, its fii-st act 
of faith, is scarcely less than identical with its own being. Implicitly it is 
the Copula— it contains the possibility^of every position, to which there 
exists any correspondence in reality. It is itself, therefore, the realizing 
principle, the spiritual substratum of the whole complex body of truths. 
This primal act of faith is enunciated in the word, God : a faith not de- 
rived from experience, but its ground and source, and without which the 
fleeting chaos of facts would no more form experience, than the dust of 
the grave can of itself make a living man. The imperative and oracular 
form of the inspu-ed Scripture, is the form of reason itself in all things 
purely rational and moral. 

If it be the word of Divine Wisdom, we might anticipate that it would 
in all things be distinguished from otlier books, as the supreme Reason, 
whose knowledge is creative, and antecedent to the things known, is dis- 
tinguished from the understanding, or creaturely mind of the mdividual, 
the acts of which are posterior to the things, it records and arranges. Man 
alone was created in the image of God : a position groundless and inexpli- 
cable, if the reason in man do not differ from the understanding. For tliis 
the inferior animals, (many at least) possess in degree : and assuredly the 
divine image or idea is not a thing of degrees. 

Hence it follows that what is expressed in the inspired writings, is impli^ 
in all absolute science. The latter whispers what the former utter as with 
the voice of a trumpet. As sure as God liveth, is the pledge and as- 
surance of every positive truth, that is asserted by the reason. The hu 
man imderstanding musing on many things, snatches at truth, but is frus- 
trated and disheartened by the fluctuating nature of its objects; its con- 
clusions therefore arc timid and uncertain, and it hath no way of giving 
permanence to things but by reducing them to abstractions: hardly (saith 
the author of the Wisdom of Solomon, of whose words the preceding 
sentence is a paraphrase) hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon 
earth, and with labour do we find the things that are before us; but all 
certain knowledge is in the power of God, and a presence from above. 
So only have the ways of men been reformed ; and every doctrme that con- 
tains a saving truth, and all acts pleasing to God (in other words, all actions 
consonant with human nature, in its original intention) are through wis- 
dom : that is, the rational spirit of man. 

40 



314 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

This then is the prerogative of the Bible ; this is the privilege of its be- 
lieving students. With them the principle of knowledge is likewise a 
spring and principle of action. And as it is the only certain knowledge, so 
are the actions that flow with it the only ones on which a secure rehance 
can be placed. The understanding may suggest motives, may avail itself 
of motives, and make judicious conjectures respecting the probable con- 
sequences of actions. But the knowledge taught in the Scriptures produ- 
ces the motives, involves the consequences ; and its highest formula is still : 
As SURE AS God liveth, so will it be unto tliee ' 

In the genuine enthusiasm of morals, religion, and patriotism, tlie en- 
largement and elevation of the soul above its mere self attest the presence, 
and accompany the intuition, of ultimate principles alone. These alone 
can interest the undegraded human spirit deeply and enduringly, because 
these alone belong to its essence, and ^vill remain with it permanently. 

Notions, the depthless abstractions of fleeting phaenomena, the shadows 
of sailing vapors, the colorless repetitions of r^n-bows, have effected their 
utmost when they have added to the distinctness of our knowledge. For 
this vei-y cause they are of themselves adverse to lofty emotion, and it re- 
quires tlie influence of a hght and warmth, not their own, to make tliem 
chrystaUize into a semblance of gi-owth. But eveiy principle is actuahzed 
by an idea ; and every idea is living, productive, partaketh of infinity, and 
(as Bacon has subUmely observed) containeth an endless power of semina- 
tion. Hence it is, that science, which consists wholly in ideas and princi- 
ples, is power. Scientia et potentia (saith the same philosopher) in idem 
coincident. Hence too it is, that notions, linked arguments, reference to 
particular facts, and calculations of prudence, influence only the compara- 
tively few, the men of leisurely minds who have been trained up to them : 
and even these few they influence but faintly. But for the reverse, I appeal 
to the general character of the doctrines which have collected the most nu- 
merous sects, and acted upon the moral being of the converts Avith a force 
that might well seem supernatural ! The great principles of our rehgion, 
the subUme ideas spoken out everywhere in the Old and New Testament, 
resemble the fixed stars, which- appear of the same size to the naked as to 
the armed eye ; the magnitude of which the telescope may rather seem to 
diminish than to increase. At the annunciation of principles, of idecis, the 
soul of man awakes, and starts up, as an exile in a far distant land at the 
unexpected sounds of his native language, when afl:er long years of ab- 
sence, and almost of obhvion, he is suddenly addressed in his own mo- 
ther-tongue. He weeps for joy, and embraces the speaker as his brother. 
How else can we explain the fact so honorable to Great Britain, that the 
poorest* amongst us wifl contend with as much enthusiasm as the richest 

* The reader will remember the anecdote told with so much humour in 
Goldsmith's Essay. But this is not the fii-st instance wliere the mind in its 
hour of meditation finds matter of admiration and elevating thought, in 
ch-cumstances that in a different mood had excited its mirth. 



o 1 re 
NOTES. ^'^^ 



for the rights of property ? The*^ rightis are the s])heree and necessary 
conditions of free agency. But free agency contains the idea of the free 
will; and in tliis he intuitively knows the sublimity, and tlie iiifmite hopes, 
fears, and capabiUties of his own nature. On what other ground but the 
cognatenessof ideas and principles to man as man, does the nameless sol- 
die^r rush to the combat in defence pf the liberties or the honor of his 
country?— Even men woflilly neglectful of die precepts of rehgion will 
shed their blood for its truth. 

All other sciences are confined to abstractions, unless when the term Sci- 
ence is used in an improper and flattering sense— Thus we may speak 
without boast of Natural History; but we have not yet attained to a 
Science of Nature. The Bible alone contains a Science of Reality : and 
therefore each of it's Elements is at the same time a living Germ, in which 
tlie Present involves the Future, and in the Finite the Infinite exists po- 
tentiaUy. That hidden mystery in every, the minutest, form of existence^ 
which contemplated under the relations of tune presents itself to the un- 
dei-standing retrospectively, as an infinite ascent of Causes, and prospect- 
ively as an interminable progression of EfFects-~that which contemplated 
in Space is beheld intuitively as a law of action and re-action, continuous 
and extending beyond all bound— this same mystery freed from the phae- 
iiomena of Time and Space, and seen in the depth of real Being, reveals 
itself to the pure Reason as the actual immanence of All in Each. Are 
we struck with admiration at beholding tlie Cope of Heaven imaged 
in a Dew-drop ? The least of the animalcula to which that drop would 
be an Ocean contains in itself an infinite problem of which God Omni- 
present is the only solution. The slave of custom is roused by the Rare 
and Accidental alone ; but the axioms of the untliinking are to the philo- 
sopher the deepest problems, as being the nearest to the mysterious Root, 
and partaking at once of its darkness and it's pregnancy. 

O what a mine of undiscovered treasures, what a new world of Power 
and tnith would the Bible promise to our future meditation, if in some gi'a- 
cious moment one soUtary text of all its inspired contents should but dawn 
upon us in the pure untroubled brightness of an Idea, that most glorious 
birth of the God-like within us, which even as the Light, its material sym- 
bol, reflects itself from a thousand surfaces, and flies homeward to its Pa- 
rent mind enriched with a thousand fonns, itself above form and still re- 
maining in its own simplicity and identity! O for a flash of that same 
Light, in which the first position of geometric science that ever loosed it- 
self from the generalizations of a groping and insecure experience, did for 
the first time reveal itself to a human intellect in all its evidence and aU 
its fiuitfulness. Transparence without Vacuum, and Plenitude without Opa- 
city ' O that a single gleam of our own inward experience would make 
comprehensible to us the rapturous Eureka, and the grateful Hecatomb, 
of the phUosopher of Samos! or that Vision which from the contempla- 



3i8 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

tion of an arithmetical harmony rose to the eye of Kepler, presenting the 
planetary worltl, and all their orbits in the divine order of their ranks and 
distances : or which, in the falHng of an Apple, revealed to the ethereal in- 
tuition of our own Newton tlie constructive principle of the material Uni- 
verse." 

The definitions, which follow, exhibit the distinctions aimed at by the 
author in few words. 

" Under the term Sense, I comprise whatever is passive in our being, 
without any reference to the questions of MateriaUsm or Immateriahsm ; 
all that man is in common with animals, in kind at least — ^his sensations, 
and impressions, whether of his outward senses, or tlie inner sense of ima- 
gination. This, in the language of the Schools, was called the vis recep- 
tiva, or recipient property of the soul, from the original constitution of which 
we perceive and imagine all things under the forms of space and time. 
By tlie UNDERSTANDING, I mean the faculty of thinking and forming jtw/g- 
ments on the notices furnished by the sense, according to certain rules ex- 
isting in itselfj which rules constitute its distinct nature. By the pure Rea- 
son, I mean the power hf which we become possessed of principle, (the 
eternal verities of Plato and Descartes) and of ideas, (N. B. not images) as 
the ideas of a point, a line, a circle, in Mathematics ; and of Justice, Ho- 
liness, Free- Will, &c. in morals. Hence in works of pure science the de- 
finitions of necessity precede the reasoning, in other works they more apt- 
ly form the conclusion." — The Friend vol. 1, pp. 305—306, Note. 

As the Philosophical works of Heniy More, from whoso Theological 
works extracts are inserted in the text, pp. 97, 99, and who was referred to 
in note 43, are seldom to be found in this countiy, I have selected a few 
passages from them having more particular reference to the subject of this 
note. The references are to a London folio edition of 1712. 

"To take away Reason under what fanatic pretence soever is to disrobe 
the Priest and despoil him of his breast-plate and which is worst of all to 
rob Christianity of that special prerogative it has above all other religions 
iri the world, namely, that it dares appeal unto reasoii." — Preface, p. 6. 

" I should commend to them, tliat would successfully philosophise, the 
beUef and endeavoui* after a certain principle more noble and inward than 
reason itself, and without which reason will faulter, or at least reach but 
to mean and frivolous things. I have a sense of something in me, while 
I thus speak, which I must confess is of so retruse a nature, that I want a 
name for it imless I should adventure to term it Divine Sagacity, which is 
the fii-st rise of a successful reason." And this, he afterwards observes, is 
the sentiment of Aristotle, that there is something before and better than Rea- 
son, whence Reason itself has its lise. The success of the mind therefore 
in its speculation after truth " is from the presence of God, who does in- 
deed move all things, in some sort or other, but residing in the most unde- 



NOTES. 317 

filed spirit, moves it in the most excellent manner, and endues it with that 
jDivine SagacUy I spoke of, which is a more inward, compendious and 
comprehensive presentation of trutli, ever antecedaneous to that reason, 
which in theories of greatest importance approves itself afterwards upon 
the exactest examination to be most solid and perfect every way, and tru- 
ly that vdsdom, which is peculiarly styled the gift of God, and hardly com- 
petible to any but to persons of a pure and unspotted mind. Of so great 
concernment is it sincerely to endeavour to be holy and good." — p. 7 & 9. 

I have been strongly tempted to insert, here, another Essay from the 
Friend, the 9th of vol. 3, as exhibiting more distinctly the author's views 
of the relation of reason, as the power of spiritual intuition in man, to the 
Supreme Reason, and showing their resemblance to those of H. More. It 
w^ould however swell the size of this volume too much, and those who 
would be desirous of reading it, will be desirous also of reading the whole 
of that most valuable work. The reader I believe will find a key to the 
subject, which I wished to explain, by referring to this volume, p. 3, to the 
extracts from the 1st Lay Sermon above and note [C] in the Appendix. 
See also note 65. 

The following from More illustrates the distinction between reason and 
the understanding, and the hmitations of the latter in regai'd to the truths 
of reason. 

"If the difticulty of framing a conception of a thing must take away the 
existence of the thing itself, there will be no such thing as a body left in 
the world, and then will all be spirit or nothing. For wlio can frame so 
safe a notion of a body, as to free himself from the entanglements, tliat the 
extension thereof will bring along with it? For this extended matter consists 
of either indivisible points, or of particles divisible in hiflnituni. Take 
which of tl>i^se you will (and you can find no thu-d) you will be wound 
into the most notorious absurdities that may be. For if you say it consists 
of points, from this position I can necessarily demonstrate, that eveiy 
spear or spire-steeple^ or what long body you will, is as thick as it is long, 
that the tallest cedar is not so high as the lowest mushroon, and tliat the 
moon and the earth are so near each other, that the thickness of your hand 
will not go betwixt, that rounds and squares are all one figure, that even 
and odd numbers are equal with one a]iother, and that the clearest day is 
as dark as the blackest night. And if you make choice of the other mem- 
ber of the disjunction, your fancy will be but little better at ease ; for no- 
thing can be divisible into parts it has not. Therefore if a body be divisi- 
ble into infinite parts, it has infinite extended parts. And if it has an in- 
finite number of extended parts, it cannot but be a hard mystery to the 
imagination of man, that infinite extended parts should not amount to one 
whole hifinite extension. And thus a grain of mustard seed would be as 
well uifinitcly extended as the whole matter of the universe, and a thou- 
sandth pait of that grain as the grain itself. Which things are more un- 



318 AIDS TO REFLrECTION. 

conceivable, than any tiling in the notion of a spirit. Tlierefore we are 
not scornfully and contemptuously to reject any notion for seeming at first 
to be clouded and obscured with some difficulties and intricacies of con- 
ception." — Antidote against Atheism, p. 14. 

What follows, making some allowance for particular expressions, will be 
seen to coincide with the views of Coleridge, and will be thought by many, 
at least, to be a sufficient exi)lanation and defence of the doctrine of innate 
ideas, 

" It will not be amiss here briefly to touch upon that notable point in 
philosophy, ivhether the soul of man he ahrasa tahida, a table-book wherein no- 
thing is writ, or whether she have some innate notions and ideas in herself. 
For so it is, that she having taken first occasion of thinking fi-om external 
objects, it hath so imposed upon some men's judgments, that they have 
conceited that the soul has no knowledge nor notion, but what is in a passive 
way impressed or dehneated upon her from the objects of sense ; they not 
warily enough distinguishing betwixt extrinsical occasions and adequate or 
principal causes of things. 

But the mind of man more free and better exercised in die close obser- 
vation of its own operations and nature, cannot but discover that there is 
an active and actual knowledge in a man, of which tliese outward objects 
are rather the reminders, tlian the first begetters or implanters. And when 
I say actual knowledge, I do not mean there is a certain number of ideas 
flaring and shining to the animadversive faculty, like so many torches or stars 
in the frmament to outward sight, that tliere are any figures, that take their 
distinct places, and are legibly writ there like the red letters or astronomical 
characters in an cdnmnack : But I understood thereby an active sagacity in 
the soul, or quick recollection, as it were, whereby some small business 
being hinted upon her, she runs out presently into a more clear or larger 
conception. 

And I cannot better describe her condition than thus : Suppose a skil- 
ful musician fallen asleep in the field upon the grass, during which time 
he shall not so much as dream any thing concerning his musical faculty, 
so that in one sense there is no actual skill or notion nor representation of 
any thing musical in him ; but his friend sitting by him that cannot sing at 
all himself, jogs him and awakes him and desires him U) sing this or the 
other song, telling him two or three words of the beginning of the song, 
whereupon he presently takes it out of his mouth, and sings the whole 
song upon so slight and slender intimation. So the mhul of man being 
jogged and awakened by the impulses of outward objects, is stirred up 
into a more full and clear conception of what was but iniperfcctly hinted 
to her from external occasions ; and this faculty I venture to call actual 
knowledge, in such a sense as the sleeping musician's skill might be called 
actual skill when he thought nothing of it. 
And that tliis ts the condition of the soul is discoverable by sundry ob- 



NOTES. 319 

sensations. As for example, exhibit to the soul through the outward sen- 
ses the figure of a circle ; she acknowledgeth presently this to be one kind 
of fgure^ and can add forthwith, that if it be perfect, all the lines, from 
some one point of it dra^vn to the perimeter^ must be exactly equal. In 
like manner shew her a triangle ; she will straightway pronounce, that if 
that be the right figure it makes toward, the angles must be closed in indi- 
visible points. But this accuracy either in the circle or the triangle cannot 
be set out m any material subject: therefore it remains that she hath a 
more fiall and exquisite knowledge of things in herself than tlie matter 
can lay open before her. 

Let us cast in a thii-d instance: let somebody now demonstrate this 
tiiangh described in the matter to have its three angles equal to two right 
ones ; why yes, saith the soul, this is true, and not only in this particular 
triangle^ but in all plain triangles that can possibly be described in the mat- 
tei\ And thus, you see, the soul sings out the whole song upon the first 
hint, as knowing it veiy well before. 

Besides this, there are a number of relative notions or ideas in the mind 
of man, as well Mathtmaticvl as Logical, which if we prove cannot be the 
impresses of any material object from without, it will necessarily follow 
that tliey are fi'om the soul herself within, and are the natural furniture of 
humane understanding. Such are these, cause, effect, whole and paH, like 
and unlike. So equality and inequaLity, Aoyo? and avaloyia^ proportion and 
analogy, symmetry and asymmetry, and such like : all which relative ideas I 
shall easily prove to be no material impresses fi-om without upon the soul, 
but her own active conception proceeding from herself whilst she takes 
notice of external objects. For that these ideas can make no impresses up- 
on the outward senses is plain from hence, because they are no sensible 
nor physical affections of the matter. And how can that that is no physical 
affection of the matter, affect our corporeal organs of sense ? 

But now that these relative ideas, whether Logical or Mathematical, be no 
physical affections of the matter, is manifest from these two arguments. 
First, they may be produced when there has been no physical motion nor 
alteration in the subject to which they belong, nay, indeed, when there 
hath been nothing at all done to the subject to which they do accrue. As 
for example, suppose one side of a room whitened, the other not touched 
or meddled with, this other has thus become unlike, and hath the notion 
of dissimile necessarily belonging to it, although there has nothing at all 
been done thereunto. So suppose two pounds of lead, which therefore 
are two equal pieces of that Metal, cut away half from one of them, the 
other pound nothing at all being done unto it has lost its Notion of equal, 
and hath acquired a new one of double unto the other. Nor is it to any 
purpose to answer, that though there was nothing done to tliis pound of 
lead, yet there was to the other ; for that does not at all enervate the Rea- 
son, but shews that the notion of sidy-double, which accrued to that lead 
which had half cut away, is but our mode of conceiving, as well as the 



320 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

other, and not any physical affectmn that stiikes the corporeal organs of the 
hody. as hx>t and cold^ hard and sojl, while and hlack, and the hke do. Where- 
fore the ideas of eqwd and uneqiial, double and sub-double^ like and unlike, 
with the rest are no external impresses upon the senses, but the soul's own 
active manner of conceiving those things which ore discovered by the 
outward senses. 

The second argument is, that one and the same part of the matter is 
capable, at one and the same time, wholly and entirely, of two contrary 
ideas of this kind. As for example, any piece of matter that is a middle 
proportional betwixt two other pieces is double, suppose, and suh-dovhle, or 
triple and svb-triple^ at once. Which is a manifest sign that these ideas 
are no affections of the matter, and therefore do not affect our senses ; else 
they would affect the senses of beasts, and they might also grow good Ge- 
ometricians and Arithmeticians. And they not affecting our senses, it is 
plain that we have some ideas that we are not beholding to our senses for, 
but are the mere exertions of the mind, occasionally awakened by the 
appulses of the outward objects ; which the outward senses do no more 
teach us, than he that awakened the musician to sing, taught him his skill." 

Antidote against Atkeism^ p. 17 — 19. 

In the next chapters he proceeds to show, that the idea of Grod has its 
origin in the soul of man in the same manner as the ideas mentioned in 
the above extract. Like them it resides there inseparably and immutably, 
and the fact of its being obscurely or imperfectly developed in some minds, 
or in whole nations, no more proves that it is not there, as a necessaiy 
part or product of the universal reason of man, in the sense above ex- 
plained, than a similar imperfect developement of geometrical truths au- 
thorises a like inference in regard to them. In regard to the objective ex- 
istence of God, he agrees with Des Cartes in considering necessary exis- 
tence a part of the rational idea, an answer to which may be found in the 
second letter of " Selections from the Correspondence of Mr. Coleridge," at 
the end of this volume. His other proofs of it, however, are solid and 
rational, but not paiticularly to my pui-pose here. 

The following is inserted fi-om his "Discourse of Enthusiasm" for its 
coincidence in thought and language with the views of Coleridge. 

"Assuredly that spiiit of iUuminaiion, which resides in the souls of the 
faithful, is a principle of the purest reason that is communicable to the hu- 
man nature. And what this spirit has, he has from Christ, (as Christ him- 
self witnesseth) who is the eternal P.oyoc, the all-comprehending wisdom 
and reason of God, wherein he sees through the natures and ideas of all 
things, with all their respects of dependency and independency, congruity 
and incongruity, or whatever habitude they have one to another, with one 
continued glance at once." — p. 39. 

These extracts from a writer of such eminence, as Henry More, will do 
something, I trust, if either acknowledged authority or rational argument 



NOTES. 2^^ 



can do any thin??, to counteract some of the prejudices against the auUior 
of this work and the language which he employs. They will show, that 
neither his language nor his philosophy are wholly unauthorised even 
among English writers of great reputation, and indeed only tmie and space 
would be wanting to multiply extracts having the same tendency from 
many other great writers of acknowledged authority among the older En- 
glish philosophers and divines. If such tlien be the fact, if the philoso- 
phical views exhibited in this work are found essentially to coincide with 
those of Plato and Lord Bacon, and of many others of the most distin- 
guished philosophers of ancient and modem times, may we not venture, 
at least without incurring the charge of arrogance and youthful presump- 
tion, to indulge a suspicion, that "there are more things in heaven and 
earth, than are dreamed of" in the sensuous and empirical philosophy of 
the day. Though all the worid may now be going in one dii-ection, self- 
confident and self-satisfied, it can do no harm, at most to any but them- 
selves, if some few should pause, and hesitate, and look about them, or 
even refuse to advance farther, till they have examined the records of their 
progress, and ascertained their position and course by the great landmarks 
of immutable truth and reason.— Am. Ed.] 

[60] p. 148. 
The Philosopher, whom the Inquisition would have burnt ahve as an 
Atheist, had not Leo X. and Cardinal Bembo decided that the Work 
might be formidable to those semi-pagan Christians who regarded Rev- 
elation as a mere Make- weight to their boasted Religion of Nature ; but 
contained nothing dangerous to the Catliolic Church or offensive to a true 
Believer. 

[61] p. 150. 
The word. Instinct, brings together a number of facts into one class by 
the assertion of a common ground, the nature of which ground it de- 
termines negatively only — L e. the word does not explain wfutt tliis com- 
mon gi'ound is ; but simply indicates, that there is such a ground, and 
that it is different ui kind from that m which the responsible and con- 
sciously voluntaiy Actions of Men originate. Thus, in its true and pri- 
mary import, Instinct stands in antithesis to Reason ; and the perplexi- 
ty and contradictory statements into which so many meritorious Natural- 
ists, and popular Writers on Natmal Histoiy (Priscilla Wakefield, Kirby, 
Spence, Huber, and even Reimarus) have fallen on this subject, arise 
wholly from their taking the word in opposition to Undei-standing. I 
notice this, because I would not lose any opportunity of impressing on 
the minds of my youthful readers the important truth, that Language (as 
the embodied and articulated Spirit of the Race, as the gi'owth and ema- 
nation of a People, and not the work of any individual Wit or Will) is of- 

41 



322 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

ten inadequate, sometimes deficient, but never false or delusive. We 
have only to master the true origin and original import of any native and 
abiding word, to find in it, if not the solution of the facts expressed by it, 
yet a finger-mai'k pomting to the road on which tliis solution is to be sought 
for. 

[62] p. 150. 
Noque quicquam adubito, quin ea candidis omnibus faciat satis. Quid 
autem facias istis qui vel ob ingcnii peitinaciam sibi satisfieri nolinf, vel 
stupidiores sint quam ut satisfactionem intelhgant? Nam qucmadmo- 
dum Simonides dixit, Thessalos hebetiores quam ut possint a se de- 
cipi, ita quosdam videas stupidiores quam ut placari queant. Adhuc non 
miiann est invenir<3 quod calumnietur qui nihil aliud quserit nisi quod 
calumnietur. {Erasmi Epist. ad Dorpiwn.) At all events, the follow- 
ing Exposition has been recieved at second hand, and passing through 
the medium of my own prepossessions, if any fault be found with it, the 
fault probably, and the blame certainly^ belongs to the Reporter. 

[63] p. 150. 
And which (I might have added) in a more enlightened age, and in a 
Protestant Countiy, impelled more than one German Univei-sity to an- 
atlicmatize Fr. IlofRnan's discovery of Carbonic Acid Gas, and of its 
effects on animal life, as hostile to religion, and tending to Atheism] 
Three or four Students at the univei-sity of Jena, in the attempt to raise a 
Spirit for the discovery ©•f a supposed hidden treasure, were strangled or 
poisoned by the fumes of the Charcoal they had been burning in a close 
Garden-house of a vineyard near Jena while employed in their magic fu- 
migations and charms. One only was restored to Life : and from his ac- 
count of the Noises and Spectres {in his ears and eyes) as he was losing his 
senses, it was taken for gi-anted that the had Spirit had destroyed them. 
Frederic Hoffinan admitted that it was a very had spirit that had tempted 
them, the Spirit of Avarice and folly; and that a very noxiovs Spirit (Gas, 
or Geist, is the German for Spirit) was the immediate cause of their death. 
But he contended that this latter Spirit was the Spirit of Chai'coal, which 
would have produced the same effect, had the young men been chanting 
psalms instead of incantations; and acquitted the Devil of all direct con- 
cern in the business. The Theological Faculty took the alarm: even 
Physicians pretended to be hoiTor-struck at Hoffman's audacity. The 
Controversy and its appendages embittered several years of this great and 
good man's life. 

[64] p. 155. 
It has in its consequences proved no trifling evil to the Christian World, 
that Aristotle's Definitions of Nature are all grounded on the petty and 
rather rhetorical than philosophical Antithesis of Nature to Art — a con- 



NOTES. 



323 



ccption ina(le(iuate to the demands even of his Pliilosoi)hy. Hence in tlie 
progress of his reasoning, he confounds the Natura JVaturata{thiit h, the 
sum total of the Facts and Pha3nomena of the senses) with an hypotheti- 
cal Natura JVatiirans a Goddess Nature, that has no better claim to a 
place in any sober sj^stem of Natural Philosophy than the Goddess Midti- 
tudo ; yet to which Aristotle not rarely gives the name and attributes of 
the Supreme Being. The result was, that the Idea of G<3d thus identifi- 
ed with his hypotlietical J^alure becomes itself but an Hypothesis^ or at 
best but a precarious inference fi'om incommensurate premises and on 
disputable Principles : while in other passages, God is confounded with 
(and eveiy where, in Aristotle's genuine works, included in) the Universe : 
which most grievous error it is the great otid characterietic Merit of Plato 
to have avoided and denounced. 

[65] p. 156. 
Take one passage among many from the posthumous Tracts (1060) of 
John Smith, not the least Star in that bright Constellation of Cambridge 
Men, the cotemporaries of Jeremy Taylor. " While we reflect on our 
own idea of Reason, we know that our own Souls ai'e not it, but only par- 
take of it ; and that we have it >nxruus6flir and not xai' ovanjv. Neither can 
it be called a Faculty, but far rather a Light, which we enjoy, but the 
Source of which is not in ourselves, nor rightly, by any individual, to be 
denominated mme." This^w?-e mtelhgence he then proceeds to contrast 
with the Discursive Faculty, i. e. the tlndei-standing. 

[See extracts from Henry More's works, in note 59 — Am. Ed.] 

[66] p. 159. 
We have the assurance of Bishop Horsley, tliat the Church of England 
does not demand the literal Understanding of the Document contained in 
the second (from verse 8) and third Chapters of Genesis as a point of faith, 
or regard a difterent interpretation as affecting the orthodoxy, of the in- 
tei-preter : Divines of the most unimpeachable orthodoxy, and the most 
averse to the allegorizing of Scripture histoiy in general, having from the 
earliest ages of the Christian Church adopted or permitted it in this in- 
stance. And indeed no unprejudiced man can pretend to doubt, that if 
in any other work of Eastern Origin he met with Trees of Life and of 
Knowledge ; talking and conversable Snakes ; 

Inque rei signum Serpentem serpere jussmn ; 

he would want no other proofs that it was an Allegory he was reading, 
and intended to be understood as such. Nor, supposing him conversant 
with Oriental works of anything like tJie same antiquity, could it surprise 
him to find events of true histoiy in comexion with, or historical person- 
ages among the Actors and Interlocutors of, the Parable. In the tern- 



334 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

language of Egypt tlie Serpent was the Symbol of the Understanding in 
its twofold function, namely, as the faculty of wi^arw to proxirmte or medud 
ends, analogous to the instinct of the more intelligent Animals, Ant, Bee, 
Beaver, &c., and opposed to the practical Reason, as the Determinant of the 
tdtimate End ; and again it typifies the understandmg as the discui*sive and 
logical Faculty possessed individually by each Individual — the Logos Iv ixa- 
coi, in distinction fromtlie Nous t. c. Intuitive Reason, the Source of Ideas 
and ABSOLUTE Truths, and the Principle of the Necessary and the Universal 
in our Aftinnations and Conclusions. Without, or in contra-vention to, the 
Reason {i. e. " the spiritual mind" of St. Paul, and the Light that lighldh 
even/ man"of St. John) this Understanding (<f()Oi')j.«o(Tapxoe, or canial mind) 
becomes the sophistic Principle, the wily Tempter to Evil by counterfeit 
Good ; the Pander and Advocate of the Passions and Appetites ; ever in 
league with, and always first applying to, the Desire, as the inferior nature 
in Man, the Woman in our Humanity; and through the Desire prevailing 
on the Will (the JWanhood, Ftrtus) against the command of the Universal 
Reason, and against the Light of Reason in the Will itself. N. B. This 
essential inherence of an intelligential Principle {(po^i »otpoi ) in the Will 
{ccp/ij 6i?.r,Tixt,), or rather the Will itself thus considered, the Greeks ex- 
pressed by an appropriate word (,^ov/.;j). This, but little differing from Ori- 
gin's interpretation or hypotliesis, is supported and confirmed by the very 
old Tradition of the Homo androgynus, L e. that the original Man, the Indi- 
vidual first created, was bi-sexual: a chim8era,of which and of many other 
mythological traditions the most probable explanation is, that they were 
originedly symbolical Glyphs or Sculptures, and afl;erwards translated into 
words, yet literally, i. e. into the common names of the several Figures and 
Images composing the Symbol, while the symbohc meaning was left to be 
decyphered as before, and sacred to the initiate. As to the abstruseness 
and subtlety of the Conceptions, this is so far from being aii objection to 
this oldest Gloss on this venerable Rehc of Shemitic, not impossibly ante- 
diluvian, Philosophy, that to those who have carried their researches far- 
thest back into Greek, Egyptian, Persian, and Indian Antiquity, it will 
seem a strong confirmation. Or if I chose to address the sceptic in the 
language of the day, I might remind him, that as Alchemy went before 
Chemistry, and Astrology before Astronomy, so in all countries of civili- 
zed Man have Metaphysics outrun Common Sense. Fortunately for us 
that they have so ! For fi-om all we know of the unmetaphysical tribes 
of New Holland and elsewhere, a Common Sense not preceded by Meta- 
physics is no very enviable concern. O be not cheated, my youthful Rea- 
der, by tliis shallow prate ! The creed of true Common Sense is compo- 
sed of the Restdts of scientific Meditation, Observation, and Experiment, 
as far as they are generally intelligible. It differs therefore in different 
countries and in every different age of the same Country. The Common 
Sense of a People is the moveable index of its average judgment and in- 



NOTES. 325 

formation. Without Metaphysics Science cou Id have had no language, 
and Common Sense no materials. 

But to return to my subject. It cannot be impugned, that the Mosaic 
Narrative thus intei-preted gives a just and faithful exposition of the birth 
and parentage and successive moments of phsnomenal Sin (Peccatum 
phcBnomenon : Crimen primarium et commune), that is, of Sin as it reveals 
itself in time^ and is an hnmediate Object of Consciousness. And in this 
sense most truly does the Apostle assert, that in Adam we all fell. The 
fii-st human Sinner is the adequate Representative of all his Successors. 
And with no less truth may it be said, tliat it is the same Adam that falls 
in every man, and from the same reluctance to abandon the too dear and 
undivorceable Eve : and the same Eve tempted by the same serpentine 
and perverted Understanding which, framed originally to be the Inter- 
preter of the Reason and the ministering Angel of the Spirit, is henceforth 
sentenced and bound over to the service of the Animal Nature, its needs 
and its cravings, dependent on the Senses for all its materials, with the 
World of Sense for its appointed Sphere ; " Upon thy belly shalt thou go, 
and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." I have shown elsewhere, 
tliat as the Instuict of the mere intelligence differs in degree not in kind, 
and circ umstantially, not essentiallj-^, from the Vis Vitse, or Vital Power in 
the assimilative and digestive functions of the Stomach and other organs 
of Nutrition, that even so the Understanding, in itself and distinct from 
the Reason and Conscience, differs in degree only from the Instinet in the 
Animal. It is still but "a beast of the field," though "more subtle than 
any beast of the field," and therefore in its corruption and perversion "cur- 
sed above any" — a pregnant Word ! of which, if the Reader wants an 
exj)osition or paraphrase, he may find one more than two thousand years 
old among the fi-agments of the Poet Menander. (See Cumberland's Ob- 
server No. CL. vol, iii. p. 289, 290.) This is the Understanding which in 
its ^^ every ThjoughV is to be brought ^^ under obedience to Faith f which it 
can scarcely fail to be, if only it be first subjected to the Reason, of which 
spiritual Faith is even the Blossoming and the fructifying process. For it 
is indifferent whether I say that Faith is the interpenetration of the Rea- 
son and the Will, or that it is at once the Assurance and the Commence- 
ment of the approaching Union between the Reason and the Intelligible 
Reahties, the Living and Substantial Truths, that are even in this hfe its 
most proper Objects. 

I have thus put the reader in possession of my own opinions respecting 
the Narrative in Gen. ii. and iii. *E::iv ofv $ii, i>? tuoiyt Soxtt, U{)oq ftv&oc, 

ahi&torarov y.ai aq/utoraroY (fi7.oaoifii\ua, svotfitoi ittv oe^Sanua, avrtTotg tb (fwrav 

ig Se TO nav ipur.rsu)g /uTeL'jt. Or I might ask with Augustine, Why not 
both ? Why not at once Symbol and History ? or rather how should it be 
otherwise ? Must not of necessity the first man be a Symbol of Mankind, 
in the fullest force of the word, Symbol, rightly defined— viz. ^symbol is a 
sign included in the Idea which it represents : ex. gr. an actual ;7a/^ chosen to 



326 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

represent the ivhole, as a lip with a chin prominent is a Symbol of Man ; 
or a lower form or species used as the representative of a higher in the 
same kind : by which definition the Symbolical is distinguished toto genere 
from the Allegoric and Metaphorical. But, perhaps, parables, cdlegories, 
and allegorical or typical apphcations, are incompatible with inspired Scrip- 
ture ! The writings of Sl Paul ai-e sufficient proof of the contrary. Yet 
I readily acknowledge, that allegorical applications are one thing, and alle- 
gorical interpretation another : and that where there is no ground for sup- 
poshig such a sense to have entered into the intent and purpose of the 
sacred Penman, they are not to be commended- So far, indeed, am I from 
entertaining any predilection for tliem, or any favourable opinion of the 
Rabbinical Commentators and Traditionists, from whom the fashion was 
derived, that in canying it as far as our own church has carried it, I follow 
her judgment and not my own. But in the first place, I know but one 
other part of the Scriptures not universally held to be parabolical, which, 
not without the sanction of great authorities, I am disposed to regard as an 
Apologue or Parable, namely, the Book of Jonas ; the reasons for believ- 
ing the Jewish Nation collectively to be therein impersonated, seeming to 
me unanswerable. (See tiie Appendix to the Statesman's Manual, Note 
B.) Secondly, as to chapters now in question — that such interpretation is 
at least tolei-ated by our church, I have the word of one of her most Zeal- 
ous Chami>ions. And lastly, it is my deliberate and conscientious convic- 
tion, that the proofs of such having been the intention of the inspired 
Writer or Compiler of the book of Genesis, lie on the face of the Narra- 
tive itself. 

[The curious reader may find a similar view of this subject in Hemy 
More's " Philosophical Cabbala" in his Philosophical Works. See also 
notes 33 and 54. — Am. Ed.] 

[67] p. 161. 
This sense of tlie word is implied even in its metaphorical or figurative 
use. Thus we may say of a River that it originates in such or such o. foun- 
tain ; but the water of a Canal is derived from such or such a River. The 
Power which we call nature, may be thus defined : a Power subject to the 
Law of Continuity [Lcz Continui. — In JValura non dalur Scdtus,) which law 
the human Understanding, by a necessity arising out of its own constitu- 
tion, can conceive only under the form of Cause and Eflfect. That this 
form (or law) of Cause and Effect is (relatively to the World wiihnd, or to 
Things as they subsist independently of our perceptions) only a form 
or mode of thinking ; that it is a law inherent in the Understanduig itself 
(just as the symmetiy of the miscellaneous objects seen by the kaleido- 
scope inheres in (t. e. results from) the mechanism of the kaleidoscope 
itseli) — this becomes evident as soon as we attempt to apply the prc-con- 
oeption directly to any operation of Nature. For in this case we are for- 



NOTES. 327 

ced to represent the cause as being at the same inetant the effect, and vice 
vei'sa the effect as being the cause — a relation vvliich we seek to express 
by the tenns Action and Re-action ; but for which the term Reciprocal 
Action or the Law of Reciprocity {germanic^ Wechselwirkung) would be 
botji more accurate and more expressive. 

These are truths which can scarcely be too frequently impressed on the 
Mind that is in earnest in the wish to reflect aright Nature is a Line in 
constant and continuous evolution. Its beginning is lost in the Super-natu- 
ral : and for our undeistanding, therefore, it must appear as a continuous 
line without beginning or end. But where there is no discontinuity there 
can be no origination, and every appearance of origination in JVatiire is but 
a shadow of our own casting. It is a reflection from our own }flU or Spirit. 
Herein, indeed, the WiU consists. This is the essential character by which 
WILL is opposed to Nature, as Spirit^ and raised above Nature as self -deter- 
mining Spirit — this, namely, that it is a power of originating an act or 
state. 

A young fiiend or, as he was pleased to describe himself, a pupU of 
miney ivho is beginning to learn to tJiink, asked me to explain by an instance 
what is meant by ^oiiginating an act or state." My answer was — ^Thia 
morning I awoke with a dull pain, which I knew from experience the 
getting up would remove; and yet by adding to the drowsiness and by 
weakening or depressing the volition' [voluntas sensoi'ialis sen mechanica) 
the very pain seemed to hold me back, to fix me (as it were) to the bed. 
After a peevish ineffectual quarrel with this painful disinclination, I said 
to myself: Let me count twenty, and the moment I come to nineteen I 
will leap out of bed. So said and so done. Now should you ever find 
yourself in the same or in a similar state, and should attend to the Goings- 
on within you, you will learn what I mean by oj-iginating an act. At the 
same time you will see that it belongs exclusively to the Will [arbiirium) ; 
that there is nothing analogous to^it in outward experiences ; and that I 
had, therefore, no way of explaining it but by referring you to an Act of 
your own, and to the peculiar self-consciousness preceding and accompa- 
nying it. As we know what Life is by Being, so we know what Will is 
by Acting. That in vnlling (replied my young friend) we appear to our- 
selves to constitute an actual Beginning, and that tliis seems unique, and 
without any example in our sensible experience, or in the phsenomena of 
Natiu-e, is an undeniable fact. But may it not be an illusion arising fi*om 
our ignorance of the antecedent causes ? You ma?/ suppose this (I rejohied) 
that the soul of every man should impose a. Lie on itself; and that this Lie, 
and the acting on the faith of its being the most important of all truths and 
the most real of all realities, should form the main contra-distinctive cha- 
racter of Ilimianity, and the only basis of that distinction between Things 
and Persons on which our whole moral and criminal Law is grounded — 
You can suppose this! I camiot, as I could in the case of an arithmetical 



328 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

or geometrical proposition, render it impossible for you to suppose it. Whe- 
ther you can reconcile such a supposition with the belief of an All-wise 
Creator, is another question. But taken singly, it is doubtless in your pow- 
er to suppose this. Were it not, the belief of the contrary would be no 
subject of a Command, no part of a moral or religious Duly. You would 
not, however, suppose it imihovt a reason. But all the pretexts that ever 
have been or ever can be afforded for tliis supposition, are built on certain 
J^otions of the Understandmg that have been generahzed from Conceptions ; 
which conceptions, again, are themselves generalized or abstracted from 
objects of Sense. Neither the one or the other, therefore, have any force 
except in application to objects of Sense and within the sphere of sensi- 
ble Experience. What but absurdity can follow, if you decide on Spirit 
by the laws of Matter ? If you judge that which, if it be at all, must be 
si</?er-sensual, by that faculty of your mind, the very definition of which 
is "the Faculty judging according to Sense .^" These then are unwortliy 
the name of reasons : they are only pretexts. But ivithotU reason to con- 
tradict your own Consciousness in defiance of your own Conscience, is 
contrary to Reason. Such and such Writers, you say, have made a great 
sensation. If so, I am sorry for it ; but the fact I take to be this. From 
a variety of causes the more austere Sciences have fallen into discredit, 
and Impostors have taken advantage of tlie general ignorance to give a 
sort of mysterious and terrific importance to a parcel of trashy Sophistry, 
tjie authoi-s of wliich would not have employed themselves more irration- 
ally in submitting the works of Rafael or Titian to Canons of Criticism 
deduced from the Sense of Smell, Nay, less so. For here the Objects 
and the Organs are only disparate : while in the other case they are abso- 
lutely divei-se. I conclude this note by reminding the reader, that my first 
object is to make myself understood. When he is in full possession of my 
meaningf then let him consider whether it deserves to be received as the 
truth, f> 

Had it been my immediate purpose to make him believe me as well as 
understand me, I should have thought it necessary to warn him that a 
Jinite Will does indeed originate an act, and may originate a state of being; 
but yet only in and for the Agent himself A finite Will constitutes a true 
Beginning; but with regard to the series of motions and changes by 
which the free act is manifested and made effectual, the fn'de W^ill give^ a 
beginning only by co-incidence with that absolute Will, which is at the 
same time Infinite Power! Such is the language of Religion, and of 
Philosophy too in the last instance. But I express the same truth in or- 
dinary language when I say, that a finite Will, or the Will of a finite Free- 
agent, acts outwardly by confluence with the Laws of Nature. 

[See notes 29, 43, and 59.— Am. Ed.] 



NOTES. 329 

[68] p. 164. 

It may conduce to the readier comprehension of this point if I saj', that 
the Equivoque consists in confounding the almost technical Sense of the 
JVoun Substantive, Right (a sense most often determined by the genitive 
case following, as the Right of Propeit)^, the Right of Husbands to chas- 
tise their Wives, and so fortlO with the popular sense of the Adjective, right: 
though this likewise has, if not a double sense, yet a double application 
— the first, when it is used to express the fitness of a mean to a relative 
End, ex, gv. " the right way to obtain the right distance at which a Picture 
should be examined," &c. ; and the other, when it expresses a perfect con- 
"^miity and commensurateness with the immutable Idea of Equity, or 
perfect Rectitude. Hence the close connexion between the words, right- 
eousness and g-oc?liness, i. e. godlikeness. 

I should be tempted to subjoin a few words on a predominating doc- 
trine closely connected witli the present argument — the Paleian Principle 
of General Consequences ; but the inadequacy of this Principle, as a 
criterion of Right and Wrong, and above all its utter unfitness as a Moral 
Guide, have been elsewhere so fully stated (Friend, vol. ii. p. 216 — 240), 
that even in again referring to the subject, I must shelter myself under 
Seneca's rule, that what we cannot too frequently think of, we cannot too oft- 
en be made to recollect. It is, however, of immediate importance to the 
point in discussion, that the Reader should be made to see how altogether 
incompatible the principle of judging by general consequences is with the 
Idea of an Eternal, Omnipresent and Omniscient Being ! that he should 
be made aware of the absurdity of attributing any form of Generalization 
to the all-perfect Mind. To generalize is a faculty and function of thig Hu- 
man Understanding, and from its imperfection and limitation are the use 
and the necessity of generalizing derived. GeneraUzation is a Substitute 
for Intuition, for the Power of intuitive (that is, immediate) knowledge. 
As a Substitute, it is a gift of inestimable Value to a finite Intelligence, 
such as Man in his present state is endowed with and capable of exerci- 
sing ; but yet a Substitute only, and an imperfect one to boot. To attri- 
bute it to God is the grossest Anthropomoi-phism : aud grosser instances 
of Anthropomorphism than are to be found in the controversial writings 
on Original Sin and Vicarious Satisfaction, the Records of Superstition do 
not supply. 

[See note 23.— Am. Ed.] 

[69] p. 167. 

Availing himself of the equivocal sense, and (I most readily admit) tlie 

injudicious use, of the word "free" in the — even on this accoxmt— faulty 

phrase, "/ree only to sin,"*^ Jeremy Taylor treats the notion of a power in 

the Will of determining itself to evil without an equal power of detcnnin- 

42 



330 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

ing itself to Good, as a "foolery.''^ I would this had been the only in- 
stance in his " Deus Justificatus" of that inconsiderate contempt so fre- 
quent in the polemic treatises of minor Divines, who will have Ideas of 
Reason, Spiritual Truths that can only l)e spiritually discerned, translated 
for tliem into adequate conceptions of the Understanding. The great arti- 
cles of Corruption and Redemption are propounded to us as Spiritual Mys- 
teries ; and eveiy interpretation, that pretends to explain them into com- 
prehensible notions, does by its veiy success furnish presumptive proof of 
its failure. Tlie acuteness and logical dexterity, with which Taylor has 
brought out the falsehood or semblance of falsehood m the Calvinistic 
scheme, are truly admirable. Had he next concentered his thoughts in 
tranquil meditation,, and. asked himself: What then is the truth ? If a 
Will be at all, what must a will be ! — he might, I think, have seen that a 
JSTature in a Will implies already a Con-uption of that Will ; that a J^ature 
is as inconsistent >vith freedom, as free choice with an incapacity of choo- 
sing aught but evil. And lastly, a free power in a JVature to fulfil a Law 
above Nature ! — I, who love and honour this good and great man with all 
the reverence that can dwell " on this side idolatry," dare not retort on this 
assertion the charge of Foolery ; but I find it a paradox as startling to my 
Reason as any of the hard sayings of the Dorp Divines were to his Under- 
standing. S. T. C. 

[See notes 29 and 45. — Am. Ed.] 

[70] p. 177. 

For a specimen of these Rabbinical Dotages I refer, not to the wri- 
tings of Mystics and enthusiasts, but to the shrewd and witty Dr. South, 
one of whose most elaborate Sermons stands prominent among the many 
splendid extravaganzas on this subject. 

[71] p. ISO. 

A Learned Order must be supposed to consist of three Classes. First, 
those who are employed in adding to the existing Sum of Power and 
Knowledge. Second, and most numerous Class, those whose office it is 
to diffuse through the community at large the practical Results of Science 
and that kind and degree of knowledge and cultivation, which for all is 
requisite or clearly useful. Third, the Fonners and Instructers of the 
Second — in Schools, Halls and Universities, or through the medium of the 
Press. The second Class includes not only the Parochial Clergy, and all 
others duly ordained to the Ministerial Office ; but likewise all the Mem- 
bers of the Legal and Medical Professions, who have received a learned 
education under accredited and responsible Teachers. 



NOTES. 



331 



[72] p. 181. 

The Author of tlie Statesman's Manual must be the most Inconsist- 
ent of men, if he can be justly suspected of a leaning to the Romish 
Church : or if it be necessary for him to repeat his fervent Amen to the 
Wish and Prayer of our late good old King, that eveiy adult in the Brit- 
ish Empire should be able to read his Bible, and have a Bible to read! 
Nevertheless, it may not be supei-fluous to declare, that in thus protesting 
against the licence of private interpretation, the Editor does not mean to 
condemn the exercise or deny the right of individual judgment. He con- 
demns only the pretended right of eveiy Individual, competent and in- 
competent, to interpret Scripture in a sense of his own, in opposition to 
the judgment of the Church, without knowledge of the Originals or of 
the Languages, the History, Customs, Opinions and Controversies of the 
Age and Country in which they were written ; tmd where the Interpreter 
judges in ignorance or in coiTtempt of uninterrupted Tradition, the unan- 
imous Consent of Fathers and Councils, and the universal Faith of the 
Church in all ages. It is not the attempt to form a judgment, which is 
here called in question ; but the gi-ounds, or rather the no-grounds^ on 
which the judgment is formed and relied on — ^the self-willed and separa- 
tive [schismatic) Setting-up [JuBresis). See note 13. 

My fixed Principle is : that a Christianity without a Church exer- 
cising Spiritual authority is Vanity and Dissolution. And my belief 
is, that when Popery is rushmg in on us hke an inundation, the Nation will 
find it to be so. I say Popery ; for this too I hold for a delusion, that Ro- 
manism or Roman CathoUcism is separable from Popery. Almost as rea- 
dily could I suppose a Circle without a Centre. 

[If the author means in the last paragraph, a church cstahlishmeiit and 
its attendant authority, the experience of this country will be thought, by 
most Christians here, to furnish a sufficient answer. — Am. Ed.] 

[73] p. 187. 

To escape the consequences of this scheme, some Arminian Divines 
have asserted that the penalty inflicted on Adam and continued in his pos- 
terity was simply the loss of immortality. Death as the utter extinction of 
personal Being : immortality being regarded by them (and not, I think, 
without good reason) as a super-natural attribute, and its loss therefore in- 
volved in the forfeiture of super-natural graces. This theory has Us gold- 
en side : and as a private opinion, is said to have the countenance of more 
than one Dignitaiy of our Church, whose general ortliodoxy is beyond 
impeachpwnrt. For here tlie Penalty resolves itself into the Consequence, 
and this the natural and [naturally) inevitable Consequence of Adam's 
Crime. For Ad^an, indeed, it was a positive punishment : a punishment 
of his guilt, the justice of which who could have dared arraign ? Wliile 



33^ AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

for the Offsprfng of Adam it was simply a not superadding to their nature 
the privilege by which the Original Man was contra-distinguished from the 
brute creation — a mere negation, of which tliey had no more right to 
complain than any other species of Animals. God in this view appears 
only in his Attribute of Mercy, us averting by supernatural interposition a 
consequence naturally inevitable. This is the golden side of the Theory. 
But if we approach to it from the o])posite direction, it first excites a just 
scruple from the countenance it seems to give to the doctrine of Material- 
ism. The supporters of this Scheme do not, I presume, contend, tliat Ad- 
am's Offspring would not have been born Me7i, but have formed a new 
species of Beasts ? And if not, tlie notion of a rational and self-conscious 
Soul, perishing utterly with the dissolution of the organized Body, seems 
to require, nay, almost involves, the o^Mnion that the Soul is a quahty or 
Accident of the Body — a mere harmony resulting from Organization. 

But let this pass unquestioned ! Whatever else the Descendants of Ad- 
am might have been without the intercession of Christ, yet (this interces- 
sion having been effectually made) they are now endowed with Souls tliat 
are not extinguished together witli the material body. Now unless these 
Divines teach likewise the Romish figment of Purgatory, and to an extent 
in which tlie Church of Rome herself would denounce the doctiine as au 
impious heresy : unless they hold, that a punishment temporaiy and re- 
medial is the worst evil that the Impenitent have to apprehend in a Future 
State ; and that the spiritual Death declared and foretold by Christ, "the 
Death Eternal where the Worm never dies," is neither Death nor eternal, 
but a certain quantum of Suffering in a state of faith, hope, and progres- 
sive amendment — unless they go these lengths (and the Divines here in- 
tended are orthodox Churchmen, men who would not knowingly advance 
even a step on the road towards them) — then I fear, that any advantage, 
their theory might possess over the Calvinistic Scheme in the article of 
Original Sin, would be dearly purchased by increased difficulties and an 
ultra-Calvinistic nan'owness in the article of Redemption. I at least find 
it impossible, with my present human feeUngs, not to imagine otherwise, 
than that even in heaven it would be a fearful thing to know, that in or- 
der to my elevation to a lot infinitely more desirable than by nature it 
would have been, the lot of so vast a multitude had been rendered infi- 
nitely more calamitous ; and that my felicity had been purchased by tlie 
everlasting misery of the majority of my fellow-men, who, if no redemp- 
tion had been provided, afler inheriting the pains and pleasures of earthly 
existence during the numbered hours, and the few and evil — evil yet feio — 
days of the yeais of their mortal hfe, would have fallen asleep to wake no 
more, woidd have sunk into the dreamless Sleep of the Grave, and have 
been as the murmur, and the plaint, and the exulting swell, and tlie sharp 
scream, which the unequal Gust of Yesterday snatched from the strmgsof 
a Wind-IIarp ! 



NOTES. 333 

111 another place I have ventured to question the 8]jirit and tendency of 
J. Taylor's Work on Repentance. But I ought to have added, that to dis- 
cover and keep tlie tiue medium in exj^ounding and applying the Efficacy 
of Christ's Cross and Passion, is beyond compai-e tlie most difficult and 
delicate point of Practical Divinity — and that which especially needs " a 
guidance from aboveJ'^ 

[74] p. 190. 

St. Paul blends both forms of expression, and asserts the same doctrine 
when speaking of the " celestial body" provided for " the New Man" in the 
spiritual Flesh and Blood, (i. e. the infornnng power and vivilic hfe of the 
incarnate Word : for the Blood is the Life, and the Flesh the Power) — 
when speaking, I say, of this " celestial body," as an "house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heaveiis" yet brought down to us, made appropriable 
by faith, and ours — he adds : " For in this earthly house (i. e. this mortal 
life, as the inward principle or energy of our Tabernacle, or outward and 
sensible Body) we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our 
house which is from heaven : not that we would be unclothed, but clothed 
upon, that Mortality might he swallowed up of life." 2 Cor. v. 1 — 4. 

The four last words of the first verse [eternal in the heavens) compared 
with the conclusion of v. 2 [which is from heaven), present a coincidence 
with John iii. v. 13, " And no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that 
came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven." [Qy. 
Whether the coincidence would not be more apparent, if the words of 
John had been rendered w^ord for word, even to a disregard of the En- 
glish Idiom, and with what would be sei-viie and superstitious fidelity in 
the translation of a common classic ? I can see no reason why the ovdnq^ 
80 frequent in St. John, should not be rendered literally, no one ; and there 
may be a reason why it should. I have some doubt likewise respecting 
the omission of the definite articles, ror, rov, rf-? — and a greater, as to the 
h tojj', both in this place and in John i. v. 18, being adequately rendered by 
our " u}hich is" P. S. What sense some of the Greek Fathers attached to, 
or infeiTed from, St. Paul's " in the Heavens," the Theological Student (and 
to Theologians is this note principally addressed) may find in Water- 
land's Letters to a Country Clergyman — a Divine, whose Judgment and 
strong sound sense are as unquestionable as his Leai'iiiiig and Orthodoxy. 
A Clergyman in full Orders, who has never read the works of Bull and 
Waterland, has — a duty yet to perform.] 

Let it not be objected, that forgetful of my own professed aversion to 
allegorical intei-pretations (see p. 13) I have in this note fallen into " the 
fond humour of the Mystic Divines and Mlegotizers of Holy Writ." There 
is, believe me ! a wide difference between symbolical and allegorical. If I 
say, tliat the Flesh and Blood (Corpus noumenon) of the Incarnate Word, 
is Power and Life, I say hkewise that this mysterious Po>ver and Life aie 



334 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

veribj and actually the Flesh aiid Blood of Christ. They are the Allegori- 
zers, who turn the Gth c. of the Gospel according to St. John — the hard 
saying — who can hear it ? After which time many of (Christ's) Disciples, 
who had been eye-witnesses of his mighty Miracles, who had heai'd tho 
sublime Morahty of his Sermon on the Mount, had glorified God for the 
Wisdom which they had heard, and had been prepared to acknowledge, 
"this is mdeed the Christ" — went back and walked no more with him! — 
the hard sayuig, which even the Twelve were not yet competent to un- 
derstand farther than that they were to be spiritually understood ; and 
which the Chief of the Apostles was content to receive "v>ith an implicit 
and anticipative faith ! — they^ I repeat, are the AUegorizers who moralize 
these hard sayings, these high words of Mystery, into an hyperbolical Me- 
taphor per Catachresin, that only means a belief of the Doctrines which 
Paul believed, an obedience to the Law respecting which Paul " was 
blameless," before the Voice called him on the road to Damascus ! What 
every Parent, every humane Preceptor, would do when a Child had mis- 
understood a Metaphor or Apologue in a literal sense, we all know. But 
the meek and merciful Jesus suffered many of his Disciples to fall off 
from eternal life, when to retain them he had only to say — O ye simple 
ones ! why are ye offended ? 3Iy words indeed sound strange : but I mean 
no more than what you have oflen and often heard fi-om me before with 
dehght and entire acquiescence ! — Credat Judseus ! Non ego. It is suflicient 
for me to know that I have used the language of Paul and John as it was 
understood and interpreted by Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Irenajus, and (if 
he does not lie) by tlie whole Christian Church then existing. 

[75] p. 192. 

[In his Literaiy Life, vol. 1. c. 12, tlie Author has distinguished ti-ans- 
cendental and transcendent, according to the scholastic use of them. In 
philosophical enquiries, that is transcendental, which lies beneath, or, as it 
were behind our ordinary consciousness, but of which we become conscious 
by a voluntaiy effort of self-inspection. That is transcendent, which is out 
of the reach of all thought and self-consciousness, and cannot, therefore, 
become an object of knowledge — and a transcendent cause is a cause, the 
knowledge of which as His in itself, lies beyond the reach of all our cog- 
nitive faculties. — Am. Ed.] 

[76] p. 193. 

This word occurs but once in the New Testament, viz. Romans v. 11, 
the margmal rendering being, reconciliation. The ])ei-sonal Noun, xura.^- 
Xctxrt]<; is still in use with the modern Greeks for a money-changer, or one 
who takes the debased Currency, so general in countries under despotic 
or other dishonest governments, in exchange for sterling Coin or Bullion ; 
the purchaser paying the catallagg, i. e. the difle«;nce. In the elder 



NOTES. 



505 



Greek writers the verb means to exchange for an opposite, as yciT,,ni«faBTo 
rr,v tx^Qctv Toitf (intaiorcuig. — ^He exchanged within himself enmity for friend- 
ship (that is, he reconciled himself) with his Party— or as we say, made it 
up with them, an idiom which (with whatever loss of dignity) gives the ex- 
act force of the word. He made up the difference. The Hebrew word of 
very freqnent occurrence in the Pentateuch, which we render by the sub- 
stantive, atonement, has its radical or visual image, in copher, pitch. Gen. 
vi. 14. thou shalt pitch it within and imthout with pitch. Hence, to unite, to 
fill up a breach, or leak, the word expressing both the act viz. the bringing 
together what had been previously separated, and the means, or material, 
by which the re-union is effected, as in our Enghsh verbs, to caulk, to solder, 
to poy or pay (from poix, pitch), and the French suivcr. Thence meta- 
phorically, expiation, the piacida having tlie same root, and being grounded 
on another property or use of Gums and Rosins, the supposed cleansing 
powers of their funn'gation. Numbers viii. 21: "made atonement for the 
Levites to cleanse them."— Lastly, (or if we are to believe the Hebrew 
Lexicons, properly and most frequently) Ransom, but if by proper the In- 
terpreters mean primai-y and radical, the assertion does not need a con- 
futation: all radicals belonging to one or other of three classes. 1. Inter- 
jections, or sounds expressing sensations or passions. 2. Imitations of sounds 
as splash, roar, whiz, &c. 3. and principally, visual images, objects of 
siglit. But as io frequency, in all the numerous (fifty, I believe) instan- 
ces of the word in the Old Testament, I have not found one in which it 
can, or at least need, be rendered by Ransom: though beyond all doubt 
Ransom is used in the Epistle to Timothy, as an equivdmt term. 

[77] p. 199. 

On a subject, concerning which we have so deep an interest in forming 
just and distinct conceptions, no serious Inquirer after rehgious truth; 
much less any man dedicated to his pursuit, and who ought to be able to 
declare with the Psalmist, it is "more desirable to me than thousands of 
gold and silver : therefore do I hate every false way ;" will blame my soli- 
citude to place a notion, which I regard not only as a misbelief, but as a 
main source of unbelief— at all events, among the most frequent and plau- 
sible pretexts of Infidelity— in all the various points of view, from which 
this or that Reader may more readily see, and see into, its falsity. I make 
therefore no apology for adding one other illustration of the whimsical 
Logic by which it is supported, in an Incident of recent occurrence, which 
will at the same time furnish an instance in proof of the contrariety of 
the Notion itself to the fii-st and most obvious principles of morahty, and 
how spontaneously Common Sense starts forward, as it were, to repel it. 

Let it be imagined, that the late ]Mr. Fauntleroy had, in comphance with 
the numerous petitions in his behalf, received a pai'don- that soon after 
some other Individual had been tried and convicted of forging a note for 



336 AIDS TO RHFLECTION. 

a Ilundrod Pound — that on application made for the extension of mercy 
to the culprit it should be declared that in a commercial country like thia 
it was contraiy to all Justice to grant a pardon to a man convicted of For- 
gery — and that in invalidation of this dictum, the apphcants having quoted, 
as they naturally would quote, the case of Mr. Fauntleroy, the Home 
Secretary should reply, yes ! but Mr. Fauntleroy forged to the amount of 
Two Hundred Thousand Pound ! — Now it is plain, that the Logic of this 
reply would remain the same, if instead of comparative Criminality I had 
sup})osed a case of comparative Purity from Crime : and when the Reader 
has settled with himself, what he would think of such Logic, and by what 
name ho would describe it, let him peruse the following extract : 

[D'om Bcddwhi's London WeeUy Journal, Saturday Dee, 4, 1824.] 
MANSION HOUSE. 

Monsieur Edmimd AngeUni, Professor of the Languages, and la Tuoralcj 
whose fracas with the Austrian Ambassador was reported on Wednesday, 
came before the Lord Mayor, and presented his Lordship with a Petition, 
of which the following is a translation : — 

''My Lord — ^He who has violated the law ought to perish by the sword 
of justice. Monsieur Fauntleroy ouglit to perish by the sword of justice. 
If another takes his place, I think that justice ought to be satisfied. I 
devote myself for him. I take upon myself his crime, and I wish to 
die to save him. 

(Signed) Edmund ANGELmi, 

18 Ossulston-street, Somers-town. of Venice." 

The Lord Mayor expressed his surprise at tlie appUcation; and Mr. 
Ano-elini was informed that it was contrary to all justice that the life of an 
innocent person should be taken to save that of one who was guilty, even 
if an iimocent man chose to devote himself 

Angelini exclaimed that our Saviour died as an atonement for the sins 
of the guilty, and that he did not see why he should not be allowed to do 

BO. 

But in answer to this, doubts were expressed whether Monsieur Angeli- 
ni was sufficiently pure to satisfy justice. 

* * ^ * * * 

Tlie Reader is now, I trust, convinced, that though tlie Case put by me, 
introductory to this extract, was imaginary, the Logic was not of my in- 
vention. It is contrary to all Justice, that an innocent person should he sac- 
rificed, Sfc. ^c. ; but a person altogether innocent — ^Aye ! that is a differ- 
ent question ! 

[78] p. 205. 
Which it could not bo, in respect of spmtual truths and objects super- 



NOTES. 337 

sensuous, if it were the same with, and merely another name for,"t}ie Fa- 
culty jiidging according to Sense" — i. e. the Understanding, or (as Taylor 
most often calls it in distinction from Reason) Discourse [Discursns sen Fa- 
cnltas discursiva vel discursona). N. B. The Reason, so instructed and so 
actuated as Taylor requires in the sentences immediately following, is what 
T have called the Spirit. Vide p. 137—138. 

[79] p. 212. 

I trust, that my .%« will exempt me from the charge of presumption, 
when I avow, that the forty lines here following are retained as a speci- 
men of accmmdalive reason, and as an Exercise^ on which my supposed 
Pupil may try and practice the power of sustaining the attention up the 
whole ascent of a "piled Argument." The most magnificent Example of 
a Sorites in our — perhaps in a7iy — Language, the Reader may find in the 
Friend, vol, ii. p. 157, transcribed from J. Taylor's Dissiuisive from Po- 
pery. 

[80] p. 214. 

I say, cdl : for the accounts of one or two travelling French PhUosophes, 
professed Atheists and Partizans of Infidelity, respecting one or two Afi*!- 
can Hordes, CaflTres and poor outlawed Boschmen hunted out of their hu- 
manity, ought not to be regarded as exceptions. And as to Heame's As- 
sertion i*especting the non-existence and rejection of the Belief among the 
Copper-Indians, it is not only hazarded on very weak and insufficient 
grounds, but he himself, in another part of his work, unconsciously sup- 
plies data, fi-om whence the contrary may safely be concluded. Hearne 
perhaps, put down his friend Motannabbi's jPor^-philosophy for the opinion 
of his tribe ; and fi*om his high appreciation of the moral character of this 
murderous Gymnosophist it might, I fear, be inferred, that Hearne himself 
was not the very person one would, of all others, have chosen for the pur- 
pose of instituting the inquiiy. 

[81] p. 216. 

The case here supposed actually occurred in my own experience in the 
person of a Spanish Refugee, of English Parents, but from his tenth year 
resident in Spain, and bred in a family of wealthy but ignorant and bigot- 
ted Catholics. In mature manhood he returned to England, disgusted 
with the conduct of the Priests and Monks, which had indeed for some 
years produced on his mind its so common effect among the better infor- 
med Natives of the South of Europe — a tendency to Deism. The results, 
however, of the infidel system in France, with his opportunities of ob- 
serving the eflTects of irreligion on the French ofllicers in Spain, on the one 
hand ; and the undeniable moral and intellectual superiority of Protostan 

43 



338 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

Britain on the other ; had not been lost on him : and here he began to 
think for himself and resolved to study the subject. He had gone through 
Bishop Warburton's Divine Legation, and Paley's Evidences ; but had ne- 
ver read the New Testament consecutively, and tlie epistles not at all. 

[82] p. 218. 

By certain bibhcal Philologists of the Teutonic School (Men distinguish- 
ed by Learning, but still more characteristically by hardihood in conjecture, 
and who suppose the Gospels to have undergone several successive re- 
visions and enlargements by, or under the authority of, the sacred Histori- 
ans) these words are contended to have been, in the first deb very, the com- 
mon commencement of all the Gospels xaru aapxa (i. e. according to (he 
Flesh) in distinction from St. John's, or the Gospel xara nvivua (i. e. accord- 
ing to the Sj)irU). — Editor. 

[83] p. 222. 

That every the least permissible form and ordinance, which at different 
times it might be expedient for the Church to enact, are pre-enacted in the 
New Testament ; and that whatever is not to be found there, ought to be 
allowed no where — ^this has been asserted. But that it has been proved ; or 
even rendered plausible ; or that the Tenet is not to be placed among the 
reviUsionary Results of the scripture-slighting Will-worship of the Romish 
Church ; it will be more sincere to say, I disbelieve, than that I doubt. It 
was chiefty if not exclusively in reference to the extravagances built on 
this tenet, that the great Selden ventured to declare, that the words Scru- 
iamini Scripturas, had set the world in an uproar. 

N. B. Extremes appear to generate each other ; but if we look steadily, 
there will most often be found some common error, that produces both as 
its Positive and Negative Poles. Thus Superstitions go by Pairs, like the 
two Hungai'ian Sistei*s, always quarrelling and inveterately averse^ but yet 
joined at the Trunk. 

[84] p. 222. 
More than tliis we do not consider as necessary for our argument. 
And as to Robinson's assertions, in his History of Baptism, that infant 
Baptism did not commence till the time of Cyprian, who, condeimiing 
it as a general practice, allowed it in paiticular cases by a dispensation 
of Charity ; and that it did not actually become the ordinary rule of 
the Church, till Augustin, in tlie fever of his anti-pelagian Dispute, had 
mtroduced the Calvinistic interpretation of Original Sin, and the dire state 
of infants' dying unbaptized — I am so far from acceding to them, that I 
reject the whole statement as rash, and not only unwarranted by the Au- 
thorities he cites, but unanswerably confuted by Baxter, Wall, and many 
other learned Psedo-baptists before and since the puWication of his Work. 



NOTES. 339 

I confine myself to the assertion — not that infant Baptism was not ; but — 
that there exist no sufficient proofs that it was, the practice of the Apoe- 
tolic Age. 

[85] p. 224. 

Let me be permitted to repeat and apply JVote 52. Superstition may be 
defined as iSiiperstautium (cujusmodi sunt Caerimoniaa et Signa externa, 
quee, nisi in significando, nihili sunt et psene niliil) 5'w6stantiatio. 

[86] p. 230. 

Conference between two men that had doubts of infant Baptism. By 
W. Wall, Author of the Hist, of Inf. Bapt. and Vicar of Shoreham in Kent. 
A very sensible little tract, and written in an excellent spirit : though it 
failed, I confess, in satisfying my mind as to the existence of any decisive 
proofs or documents of Infant Baptism having been an Apostolic Usage, 
or specially intended in any part of the New Testament : though deduci- 
ble generally from many passages, and in perfect accordeuice with the spirit 
of tl^ie whole. 

P. S. A mighty Wrestler in the cause of Spiritual Religion and Gospel 
Morality, in whom more than in any other Contemporary I seem to see 
the Spirit of Luther revived, expressed to me his doubts whether we 
have a right to deny tliat an infant is capable of spiritual influence. To 
such a man I could not feel justified in returning an answer extempore, or 
without having first submitted my convictions to a fresh revisal. I owe 
him, however, a dehberate answer ; and take tliis opportunity of discharg- 
ing the debt. 

The Objection supposes and assumes the veiy point which is denied, or 
at least disputed — ^viz. that Infant-baptism is specially injoined in the Scrip- 
tures. If an express passage to this purport had existed in the New Tes- 
tament, the other passages, which evidently imply a sjiiritual operation un- 
der the condition of a preceding spiritual act on the part of the person 
baptized, remaining as now — then indeed, as the only way of removing tlie 
apparent contradiction, it migJit be allowable to call on the Anti-poedo- bap- 
tist to prove the negative — namely, that an infant a week old is not a sub- 
ject capable or susceptible of spiritual agency. — And vice versa, should it 
be made known to us, that infants are not without reflection and self-con- 
sciousness — then, doubtless, we should be entitled to infer that they were 
capable of a spiritual operation, and consequently of that which is signi- 
fied in the baptismal rite administered to Adults. But what does this prove 
for those, who (as DD. Mant and D'Oyley) not only cannot show, but who 
do not themselves profess to believe, the self-consciousness of a New-boni 
Babe ; but who rest tlie defence of Infant-baptism on the assertion, that 
God was pleased to affix the performance of this rite to his ofier of Salva- 
ion, as the indispensable, though arliitrary, condition of the infant's salva- 



340 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

bility ? — As Kings in former ages, when they conferred Lands in perpetu- 
ity, would sometimes, as the condition of the Tenure, exact from the Be- 
neficiary a hawk, or some trifling ceremony, as the putting on or off of 
tlieir Sandals, or whatever else royal caprice or the whim of the moment 
inight suggest. But you, honored Irving, are as little disposed, as myself, 
to favor such doctrine ! 

Friend pure of heart and fervent ' we have learnt 
A different lore ! We may not thus profane 
The Idea and name of Him whose absolute Will 
Is Reason — Truth Supreme! — ^Essential Order! 

[87] p. 235. 

Of which our he was made Jlesh, is perhaps the best, that our language 
admits, but is still an inadequate translation. See note 9. The Church of 
England in this as in other doctrinal points, has preserved the golden mean 
between the superstitious reverence of the Romanists, and the avowed 
contempt of the Sectarians, for the Writings of the Fathers, and the au- 
thority and unimpeached traditions of the Church during the first three or 
four Centuries. And how, consistently with this honorable characteristic 
of our Church, a Minister of the same could, on the sacramentary scheme 
now in fashion, return even a plausible answer to Arnauld's great Work 
on Transubstantiation, (not without reason die Boast of Catholicism) ex- 
ceeds my powers of conjecture ! 

[88] p 157. 

Will the Reader forgive me if I attempt at once to illustrate and relieve 
the subject by annexing the first stanza of the Poem, composed in the same 
year in which I wrote the Ancient Mariner and the fii-st Book of Chris- 
tabel ? 

♦^Encinctur'd with a twine of Leaves, 
That leafy t^vine his only Dress ! 
A lovely Boy was plucking fruits 
In a moonlight \vilderness. 
Tlie Moon was bright, the air was free, 
And Fruits and Flowers together grew 
On many a Shrub and many a Tree : 
And all put on a gentle hue, 
Hanging in the shado\vy air 
Like a Picture rich and rare. 
It was a climate where, they say, 
The Night is more beloved than Day. 
But who that beauteous Boy beguil'd, 
That beauteous Boy ! to hnger here ? 



NOTES. 341 

Alone, by night, a little child, 

In place so silent and so wild — 

Has he no friend, no loving mother near ?" 

Wanderings of Cain, a MS. Poem. 

[89] p. 243. 

Such is the conception of Body in Des Cartes' own system. Body is 
eveiy where confounded with Matter, and might in the Cartesian sense 
be defined, Space or Extension with the attribute of Visibihty. As 
Des Cartes at the same time zealously asserted tlie existence of intelli- 
gential Beings, the reality and independent Self-subsistence of tlie Soul, 
Berkleianism or Spinosism was the immediate and necessary Conse- 
quence. Assume a plurality of self-subsisting Souls, and we have Berk- 
leianism ; assume one only, (unam et unicam Substantiam), and you have 
Spinosism, i. e. the assertion of one infinite Self-subsistent, with the two At- 
tributes of Thinking and Appearing. "Cogitatio infinita sine centro, et om- 
niformis Apparitio." How far the Newtonian Vis inertiae (interjireted any 
othei-wise than as an arbitrary termrrzx y z, to represent the unknown but 
necessary supplement or integration of the Cartesian Notion of Body) has 
patched up the Flaw, I leave for more competent Judges to decide. But 
should any one of my Readers feel an interest in the speculative principles 
of Natural Philosophy, and should be master of the German Language, I 
warmly recommend for liis perusal the earliest known publication of the 
Great Founder of the Critical Philosophy (written in the twenty-second 
Year of his Age !) on the then eager controversy between the Leibnitzian 
and the French and English Mathematicians, respecting the Living For- 
ces — "Gedanken von der wahren Schatzung der lebendigen Kraflie : 1747" 
— in whifh Kant demonstrates the right reasoning to be with the latter; 
but the A ruth of jPad, the evidence of experience, with the former; and 
gives the explanation, namely : Body, or Coi-poreal Nature, is something 
else and more than geometrical extension, even with the addition of a Vis 
inertiae. And Leibnitz, with the Bernouillis, erred in the attempt to de- 
monstrate geometrically a problem not susceptible of geometrical con- 
struction. — This Tract, with the succeeding Himmels-system, may with 
propriety be placed, after the Principia of Newton, among the strikmg in- 
stances of early Genius; and as the first product of the Dynamic Philos- 
ophy in the Physical Sciences, from the time, at least, of Giordano Bruno, 
whom the Idolaters burnt for an Atlieist, at Rome, in tlie year 1000. — See 
the Friend, Vol. 1. p. 193—197. 

[90] p. 243. 
For Newton's own doubtfully suggested Ether or most subtle Fluid, as 
the ground and immediate Agent in tlie phaenomena of universal Grav- 
itation, was either not adopted or soon abandoned by his Disciples; not 



343 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

only as introducing, against his own Canons of Right Reasoning, an 
Ens iinaginarium into physical Science, a Su^dion in the place of a le- 
gitimate Supposition', but because the Substance (assuming it to exist) 
must itself form part of the Problem, it was meant to solve. Meantime 
Leibnitz's Pre-established Harmony, which originated in Spinosa, found 
no acceptance ; and, lastly, the Notion of a corpuscular Substance, with 
Properties put into it, like a Pincushion hidden by the Pins, could pass 
with the unthinking only for any thing more than a Confession of igno- 
rance, or technical terms expressing an hiatus of scientific insight. 



APPENDIX, 



CONTAINING A 

"SELECTION FROM MR. COLERIDGE'S LITERARY 
CORRESPONDENCE," 

REPRINTED FROM 

BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, 

FOR OCTOBER 1821; 

AND THE 

"APPENDIX TO THE STATESMAN'S MANUAL." 



The expediency of inserting in this volume the articles which follow 
may not perhaps be very obvious. My motive for doing it, aside from the 
inherent value of the articles themselves, is to place before the readers of 
the Aids to Reflection, as far as I could do so, the means of clearly under- 
standing the language and sentiments of the Author in that Work. In 
regard to seveml important points, I think they will find their views made 
more clear by reference to these, though in themselves they may be found 
more difficult to understand, than the work to which they are appended. 
They are, moreover, several times refeiTed to in the Aids to Reflection, 
and probably few of the Readers of that Work would have access to them 
elsewhere. The thii'd letter of the " Selection" is omitted, as not paiticu- 
larly suited to the purpose of this work. The Appendix to the Statesman's 
Manual is reprinted entire. A few sentences have reference to the text of 
that work, but could not well be omitted. For the most part they may be 
considered as independent essays having reference, as the author elsewhere 
tells us, to the heights of Metai)hysics and Theology, and deeply interest- 
ing to those, who will reflect enough to understand them. 



SELECTION 

FROM 

MR. COI^ERIDGE'S LITERARY CORRESPONDENCE, 

WITH 

FRIENDS AND MEN OF LETTERS. 



LETTER I. 

FROM A PROFESSIONAL FRIEND, 

My Dear and Honoured Sir,---I was much struck with your Excerpta 
from Porta, Eckartshausen, and others, as to the effect of the ceremonial 
drinks and unguents, on the (female) practitioners of the black arts, whose 
witchci-aft you believe to have consisted in the unhappy craft of bewitch- 
ing themselves. I, at least, know of no reason, why to these toxications, 
(especially when taken through the skin, and to the cataleptic state indu- 
ced by ihem,) we should not attribute the poor wretches' own belief of 
their guilt I can conceive, indeed, of no other mode of accounting — I 
do not say for their suspicious last dying avowals at the stake ; but — for 
their private and voluntaiy confessions on their death-beds, which made 
a convert of your old favourite, Sir T. Brown. Perhaps my professional 
pursuits, and medical studies, may have predisposed me to be interested ; 
but my mind has been in an eddy ever since I left you. The connexions 
of the subject, with classical and with druidical superstitions, pointed out 
by you — the Circeia poctda — the herbal spells of the Haxae, or Druidesses — 
the somniloquism of the prophetesses, under the coercion of the Scandi- 
navian enchanters — the dependence of the Greek oracles on mineral wa- 
ters, and stupifying vapours from the earth, as stated by Plutarch, and more 
than once alluded to by Euripides — the vast spi-eadof the same, or similar, 
usages, from Greenland even to the southernmost point of America ; — you 
sent me home with enough to think of ? But more than all, I was struck 
and interested with your concluding remark, that these, and most other 
superstitions, were, in your belief, but the cadaver et putrimenta of a 
DEFUNCT NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. Why uot rather the imperfect rudiments? 
I asked. You promised me your reasons, and a fuller explanation. But 
let me speak out my whole wish ; and call on you to redeem the pledges 
you gave, so long back as October 1809, that you would devote a series of 

44 



S46 



AIDS TO REFLECTION. 



papers to the subject of Dreams, Visions, Presentations, Ghosts, Witchcraft, 
Cures by sympathy, in which you would select and explain the most in- 
teresting and best attested facts that have come to your knowledge from 
books or personal testimony. 

You can scarcely conceive how deep an interest I attach to this request; 
nor how many, beside myself, in the circle of my own acquaintance have 
the same feeling. Indeed, my dear Sir ! when I reflect, tliat there is 
scarcely a chapter of history in which superstition of some kind or other 
does not form or supply a portion of its contents, I look forward, with un- 
quiet anticipation, to the power of explaining the more frequent and best 
attested narrations, at least without the necessity of having recourse to the 
supposition of downright tricks and lying, on one side, or to the devil and 
his imps on the other. * * * * 

Your obliged Pupil, 

and affectionate Friend, 

J- L . 

P. S. — Dr. L. of the Museum, is quite of your opinion, that little or no- 
thing of importance to the philosophic naturalist can result from Compar- 
ative Anatomy on Cuvier's plan ; and that its best trophies will be but life- 
less skeletons, till it is studied in combination with a Comparative Physi- 
ology. But you ought yourself to vindicate the priority of your claim. 
But I fear, dear C, that Sic Vos^ non VoUs^ was made for your motto 
throughout life. 

LETTER II. 

IN ANSWER TO THE ABOVE. 

Well, my dear pupil and fellow student ! I am willing to make the at- 
tempt. If the majority of my readers had but the same personal knowl- 
edge of me as you have, I should sit down to the work with good cheer. 
But this is out of the question. Let me, however, suppose you for the 
moment, as an average reader — address you as such, and attribute to you 

feelings and language in character. — Do not mistake me, my dear L . 

Not even for a moment, nor under the pretext of rrums a non movendo, 
would I contemplate in connexion with your name " id genus lectorum, 
qui meliores obtrectare mahnt quam imitari : et quorum similUudinem des- 
perent, eorundem affectent simvltatem — sciUcet uti qui suo nomine obscuri 
sunt, meo innotescant."* The readers I have in view, are of that class 
who with a sincere, though not very strong desire, of acquiring knowl- 
edge, have taken it for granted that all knowledge of any value respecting 



*The passage, which cannot fail to remind you of H and his set, 

is from Apuleius' Lib. Floridorum — the two books of which, by-the-bye, 
seem to have been transcribed from his common-place book of Good 
Tilings, happy phrases, &c. that he had not had an opportunity of bring- 
ing in in his set writings. 



APPENDIX. 347 

the mind, \e eitlier to be found in three or foui- books, tlie eldest not a hiin- 
flred years old, or may be conveniently taught witliout any other terms or 
previous explanations than these works have already rendered familiar 
among men of education. 

Weil, friendly reader ! as the problem of things Uttle less (it seems to 
you) than impossible, yet strongly and numerously attested by evidence 
which it seems impossible to discredit, has interested you, I am willing to 
attempt the solution. But then it must be under certain conditions. I 
must be able to hope, I must have sufficient grounds for hojung, that I shall 
be understood, or rather that I shall be allowed to make myself under- 
stood. . And as I am gifted with no magnetic power of throwing my rea- 
der into the state of dear-seeing (clairvoyance) or luminous vision ; as I 
have not the secret of enabling him to read with the pit of his stomach, 
or with his finger-ends, nor of calling into act " the cuticular faculty," dor- 
mant at the tip of his nose ; but must rely on words — I cannot form the 
hope rationally, unless the reader will have patience enough to master the 
sense in which I use them. 

But why employ loords that need explanation ? And might I not ask in my 
turn, wonld you, gende reader, put the same question to Sir Edward Smith, 
or any other member of the Linneean Society to whom you had apphed for 
instruction in Botany ? And yet he would require of you that you should 
attend to a score of technical terms, and make yourself master of the 
sense of each, in order to your understanding the distinctive character of 
a grass, a mushroom, and a lichen ! Now the psychologist, or speculative 
philosopher, will be content with you, if you will impose on yourself the 
trouble of understanding and remembering one of the number in order to 
understand your own nature. But I will meet your question direct. You 
ask me why I use words that need explanation'^ Because (I reply) on this 
subject there are no others ! Because the darkness and the main difficul- 
ties that attend it, are owing to the vagueness and ambiguity of the words 
in common use ; and which preclude all explanation for him who had re- 
solved that none is required. Because there is already a falsity in the very 
phrases, "words in common use ;" "the language of common sense." Words 
of most frequent use they may be, comm,on they are not ; but the language 
of the market, and as such, expressing degrees only, and therefore incom- 
petent to the purpose wherever it becomes necessary to designate the kind 
independent of all degree. The philosopher may, and often does, employ 
the same words as in the market ; but does this supersede the necessity of 
a previous explanation ? As I referred you before to the Botanist, so now 
to the Chemist. Light, heat, charcoal, are every man's words. But Jhced 
or invisible light ? The frozen heat ? Charcoal in its simplest form, as 
diamond^ or as black-lead ? Will a sti'anger to chemistry be worse off, 
would the Chemist's language be less likely to be understood by his using 
different words for distinct meanings, as carbon, caloric, and tlie like ? 



348 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

But the case is still stronger. The chemist is compelled to make words, 
in order to prevent or remove some error connected with the common 
word ; and this too an error, the continuance of which was incompatible 
with the first principles and elementary truths of the science he is to teach. 
You must submit to regard yourself ignorant even of the words, air and wa- 
ter ; and will find, that they are not chemically intelligible without the terms, 
oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, or others equivalent. Now it is even so with the 
knowledge, which you would have me to communicate. There are cer- 
tain prejudices of the common, t. c of the average sense of men, the ex- 
posure of which is the first step, the indispensable preliminarj^ of all ra- 
tional psychology : and these cannot be exposed but by selecting and ad- 
hering to some one word, in which we may be able to trace the growth 
and modifications of the opinion or belief conveyed in this, or similar 
words, not by any revolution or positive change of the original sense, but 
by the transfer of this sense and the difference in the application. 

Where there is but one word for two or more diverse or disparate 
meanings in a language, (or though there should be several, yet if perfect 
synonyimes, they count but for one word,) the language is so far defective. 
And this is Q defect of frequent occurrence in all languages, prior to the 
cultivation of science, logic and philology, especially of the two latter : 
and among a free, hvcly, and ingenious people, such as the Greeks were, 
sophistry and the influence of sophists are the inevitable result. To check 
this evil by striking at its root in the ambiguity of words, Plato wrote the 
greater part of his published works, which do not so much contain his 
own system of philosophy, as the negative conditions of reasoning aright 
on any system. And yet more obviously is it the case with the Metaphys- 
ics, Analytics, &c. of Aristotle, which have been well described by Lam- 
bert as a dictionary of general terms, the process throughout being, first, 
to discover and establish definite meanings, and then to appropriate to each 
a several word. The sciences will take care, each of its own nomencla- 
ture ; but the interests of the language at large fall under the special guar- 
dianship of logic and rational psychology. Where these have fallen into 
neglect or disrepute, from exclusive pursuit of wealth, excess of the com- 
mercial spirit, or whatever other cause disposes man in general to attach 
an exclusive value to immediate and palpable utility, the dictionaiy may 
swell, but the language will decline. Few are the books published within 
the last fifty years, that would not supply their quota of proofs, that so it 
is with our own mother English. The bricks and stones are in abund- 
ance, but the cement none or naught. That which is indeed the common 
language exists every where as the menstruum, and nowhere as tlie whole 

See BiograpUa Literaria — while the language complimented with this 

name, is, as I have already said, in fact the language of the maiket. Eve- 
ry science, every trade, has its technical nomenclature ; every folly has its 
famy words ; every vice its own slang — and is the science of humanity to 



APPENDIX. 349 

be the one exception ? Is philosophy to work without tools ? to have no 
straw wherewith to make the bricks for her mansion-house but what she 
may pick up on the high road, or steal, with all its impurities and sophis- 
tications, from the litter of the cattle market ? 

For the present, however, my demands on your patience are very limit- 
ed. — If as the price of much entertainment to follow, and I trust of 
something besides of less transitory interest, you will fairly attend to the 
liistoiy of two scholastic terms, object and subject, with their derivatives ; 
you shall have my promise that I will not on any future occasion ask you 
to be attentive, without tryuig not to be myself dull. That it may cost 
you no more trouble tlian necessary, I have brought it under the eye in 
numbered paragraphs, with scholia or commentary to such as seemed to 
require it. 

Yours most affectionately, 

S. T. COLERIDGE. 

On the Philosophic import of the Words Object and Subject. 
§1. 
Existence Is a simple intuition, underived and indecomponible. It is no 
idea^ no particular form, much less any determination or modification of 
the possible : it is nothing that can be educed from the logical conception 
of a tiling, as its predicate: it is no property of a thing, but its reality itself; 
or as the Latin would more conveniently express it — Nulla rei proprictas 
est, sed ipsa ejus realitas, 

SCHOLIUM. 

Herein lies the sophism in Des Cartes' celebrated demonstration of the 
existence of the Supreme Being fiom the idea. In the idea of God are 
contained all attributes that belong to the perfection of a being : but exist- 
ence is such : therefore God's existence is contained in the idea of God. 
To this it is a sufficient answer, that existence is not an attribute. It might 
be sho^vn too, from the barrenness of the demonstration, by identifying the 
deduction with the premise, i. e. for reducing the minor or term included 
to a mere repetition of the major term including. For in fact the syllogism 
ought to stand thus : the idea of God comprises the icka of all attributes 
that belong to perfection ; but the idea of existence is such : therefore the 
idea of his existence is included in the idea of God. Now, existence is 
no idea, but a fact : or, though we had an idea of existence, still the proof 
of its correspondence to a reality would be wanting, i. e. the very point 
would be wanting which it was the purpose of the demonstration to sup- 
ply. Still the idea of the fact is not the fact itself Besides, the term idea, 
is here improperly substituted for the mere supposition of a logical subject, 
necessarily presumed in order to the conceivableness {cogitahilitas) of any 
qualities, proi)erties, or attriUites. But this is a mere ens logiciuu, (vol 



350 AIDS TO REFL.ECTIOJN . 

ctiam grammalicum)j the result of the thinker's own unity of coneciousness 
and no less contained in the conception of a plant or of a chimera, than 
in the idea of a Supreme Bemg. If Des Cartes could have proved, that 
his idea of a Supreme Being is universal and necessary, and that the con- 
viction of a reality perfectly coincident with the idea is equally universal 
and inevitable ; and that tliese were in truth but one and the same act or 
hituition, unique, and Avithout analog}^, though, fi'om the inadequateness of 
our minds, from the mechanism of thought, and the structure of language 
we are compelled to express it dividually, as consisting of two correlative 
terms, — ^this would have been something. But then it must be entitled a 
statemenij not a demonstration — the necessity of which it would supersede. 
And something like this may perhaps be found true, where the reasoning 
powers are developed and duly exerted ; but would, I fear, do little to- 
wards settling the dispute between the religious Theist and the speculative 
Atheist or Pantheist, whether this be all, or whether it is even what we 
mean, and are bound to mean, by the word God. The old controversy 
would be started, what are the possible perfections of an Infinite Being — 
in other words, what the legitimate sense is of the term, hifinite, as appli- 
ed to Deity, and what is or is not compatible with that sense, 

§2. 
I think, and while thinking, I am conscious of ceitain workings or move- 
ments, as acts or activities of my being, and feel myself as the power in 
which they originate. I feel myself working ; and the sense or feeling of 
this activity constitutes the sense and feeling of existence,! e. of my ac- 
tual being. 

SCHOLIUM. 
Movements, motions, taken metaphorically, without relation to space or 

place. Kirtioetg fiij xaxa ronov\ oi oxTTrep xtvijottf, of AristOtle. 

§3. 
In these workings, however, I distinguish a difference. In some I feel 
myself as the cause and proper agent, and the movements themselves as 
the work of my own power. In others, I feel these movements as my 
own activity ; but not as my own acts. The first we call the active or 
positive state of our existence ; the second, the passive or negative state. 
The active power, nevertheless, is felt in both equally. But in the first I 
feel it as the cause actmg, in the second, as the condition^ without which I 
could not be acted on. 

SCHOLIUM. 

It is a truth of highest imj}ortance, that agere et pati are not different 
kinds, but the same kind in different relations. And tliis not only in con- 
sequence of an immediate reaction, but the act of receiving is no lesa truly 



APPENDIX. 351 

"n ad, than the act of influencing. Thus, the hings act in being stimula- 
ted by the air, as truly as in the act of breathing, to which they were stim- 
ulated. The Greek verbal termination, w, happily illustrates this. Iloioi, 
nparru), naaxoi, in philosophical grammar, are all three verbs active ; but 
the first is tlie SiCtiye-transitive, in which the agency passes forth out of the 
agent into another. Tt nomg ; what are you doing? The second is the 
active intrans^iiive. Ttnparrstg- hmo do you do? or how are you? The 
third is the active-passive, or more appropriately the active-patient, the verb 
recipient or receptive, rt Ttaax^^? ; what ails you ? Or, to take another idiom 
of our language, that most livelily expresses the co-presence of an agent, 
an agency distinct and alien from our own, What is the matter with you ? 
It would carry us too far to explain the nature of verbs passive, as so called 
in technical grammar. Suffice, that this class originated in the same cau- 
ses, as led men to make the division of substances into living and dead — 
a division psychologically necessary, but of doubtfiil philosophical validity. 

§4. 
With the workings and movements, which I refer to myself and my own 
agency, there alternate — say, rather, I find myself alternately conscious of 
forms (^Impressions, images, or better or less figurative and hypothetical, 
presences, presentations,) and of states or modes, which not feeling as the 
work or eflTect of my own power, I refer to a power other than me, i. e. 
(in the language derived from my sensfe of sight) without me. And tliis is 
the feeling I have of the existence of outward things. 

SCHOLIUM. 

In this superinduction of the sense of outness on the feeling of tlie a>ctual 
arises our notion of the real and reality. But as I cannot but reflect, that 
as tlie other is to me, so I must be to the other, the terms real and actual, 
soon become confounded and interchangeable, or only discriminated in 
the gold scales of metaphysics. 

§5. 

Since both, then, the feeling of my own existence and the feeling of the 
existence of things without, are but this sense of an acting and working — 
it is clear that to exist is the same as to act or work ; (Quantum operor, 
tantum sum,) that whatever exists, works, (rrds in action ; actually is ; is 
indeed,) that not to work, as agent or patient, is not to exist ; and lastly, 
that patience (z=vis patiendi,) and the reaction that is its co-instantaneous 
consequent, is the same activity in opposite and alternating relations. 

§6. 
That wliich is inferred m. those acts and workings, the feeling of which 
is one with the feeling of our own existence, or inferred from those which 
we refer to an agency distinct from our own, but in hoth instances is infer- 
red, is the SUBJECT, i. e. that which does not appear, but lies itnder (quod 
jacet subter) the appearance. 



352 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

§7. 

But in tlie first instanco, that, namely, which is infen-ed in ite effects, 
and of course therefore «c//*-inferred, the euhject is a mind, i, e, that which 
knows itself, and may be inferred by others ; but which cannot appear. 

§8. 

That, in or from which the subject is inferred, is the object, id quod 
jacet 6b oculos, that which lies before us, that which lies strait opposite. 

SCHOLIUM. 

The terms used in psychology, logic, &c. even those of most frequent 
occun-ence in common life, are, for the most part, of Latin derivation ; 
and not only so, but the original words, such as quantity, quality, subject, 
object, &c. &c. formed in the schools of philosophy for scholastic use, and 
in correspondence to Greek technical terms of the same meaning. Ety- 
mology, therefore, is little else than indispensable to an insigjit into the 
ti-ue force, and as it were, freshness of the words in question, especially of 
those that have passed from the schools into the market-place, from the 
medals and tokens {(^vu^oXa) of the philosophers' guilder company into the 
current coin of the land. But the difference between a man who under- 
stands them according to their first use, and seeks to restore the original 
impress and superscription, and the man who gives and takes them in 
small change, unweighed, and ti'ied only by the sound, may be illustrated 
by imagining the different points of view in which the same cowry would 
appear to a scientific conchologist, and to a chaffering negx-o. This use of 
etymology may be exemplified in the present case. The immediate ob- 
ject of the mind is always and exclusively the workings or makings above 
stated and distinguished into two kinds, § 2, 3, and 4. Where the object 
consists of the first kind, in which the subject infers its own existence, and 
which it refers to its own agency, and identifies with itself, (feels and 
contemplates as one with itself, and as itself), and yet without confounding 
the inherent distinction between subject and object, the subject wimesses 
to itself that it is a mind, t. e. a subject-object, or subject that becomes 
an object to itself. 

But where the workings or makings of the second sort are the object, 
irom objects of this sort we always infer the existence of a subject, as in 
the former case. But we infer it from them, rather than in them ; or, to 
express the point yet more clearly, we infer two sut)jects. In the object, 
we infer our own existence and subjectivity ; from them the existence of a 
subject, not our own, and to this we refer the object, as to its proper cause 
and agent. Again, we always infer a correspondent subject ; but not al- 
ways a viind. Whether we consider this other subject as anotJiev mind, is 
determined by the more or less analogy of the objects or malvings of the 
second class to those of the first, and not seldom depends on the varying 
degrees of our attention and previous knowledge. 



APPENDIX. 353 

Add to these difTerencog thic modifying influence of the senses, the sense 
of .sight more particularly, in consequence of which this subject other than 
we, is presented as a subject ovi of us. With the sensuous vividness con- 
nected wdth, and which m part constitutes^ this outness or outwardness, 
contrast the exceeding obscurity and dimness in the conception of a sub- 
ject not a mind ; and reflect too, that, to objects of the Jlrst kind, we can- 
not attribute actual or separative outwardness ; while, in cases of the sec- 
ond kind, we are, afl;er a shorter or longer time, compelled by tlie law of 
association to transfer this outness from the inferred subject to the present 
object. Lastly, reflect that, in the former instance, the object is identified 
with the subject, both positively by the act of the subject, and negatively 
by unsusceptibility of oumess in the object: and that in the latter the very 
contrary takes place ; namely, instead of the object being identified with 
the subject, the subject is taken up and confounded in the object. In the 
ordinary and uni'cflecting states, therefore, of men's minds, it could not be 
othei-wise, but that, in the one instance, the object must be lost, and indis- 
tinguishable in the subject ; and that in the other, the subject is lost and 
forgotten in the object, to which a necessary illusion had already transferred 
that outness, which, in its origin, and in right of reason, belongs exclusive- 
ly to the subject, i. e.the agent ah extra inferred fi-om the object. For out- 
ness is but the feeling of othernessy (alterity) rendered intuitive, or alterity 
visually represented. Hence, and also because we find this outness and 
the objects, to which, though they are, in fact, workings in our own being, 
we transfer it, independent of our will, and apparently common to other 
minds, we learn to connect therewith the feeling and sense of reality ; and 
the objective becomes synonymous first with external, then with real, and 
at length it was employed to express universal and permanent validity, free 
from the accidents and particular constitution of individual intellects ; nay, 
when taken in its highest and absolute sense, as free from the inherent 
limits, partial perspective, and refracting media of the human mind in 
specie, [idola trihus of Lord Bacon,) as distinguished from mind in toto 
genere. In direct antithesis to these several senses of the term, objective, 
the subjective has been used as synonymous with, first, inward ; second, 
unreal ; and third, that, the cause and seat of which are to be referred to 
the special or individual peculiarity of the percipient's, mind ,organs, or re- 
lative position. Of course, the meaning of the word in any one sentence 
cannot be definitely ascertained but by aid of tlie context, and will vary 
with the immediate purposes, and previous views and pei-suasions of the 
writer. Thus, the egoist, or ultra-idealist, affirms all objects to be subjective ; 
the disciple of Malbranche, or of Berkeley, that the objective subsists 
wholly and solely in the universal subject — God. A lady, otherwise of 
sound mind, was so affected by the reported death of her absent husband, 
that eveiy night at the same hour she saw a figure at the foot of her bed, 
which she identified with him, and minutely described to the bystanders, 
during the continuance of the vision. The husband returned, aiid previ- 

45 



354 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

ous to the meeting, was advised to appear for the first time at the foot of 
the bed, at the precise instant that the spirit used to appe ar, and in the 
dress described, in the hope that the original might scare away the coun- 
terfeit ; or, to speak more seriously, in the expectation that the impression 
on her senses from without would meet half way, as it were, and repel, or 
take the place of, the image from the brain. He followed the advice ; 
but the moment he took his position, the lady shrieked out, "My God there 
are two ! and" — The story is an old one, and you may end it, happily or 
tragically, Tate's King Lear or Shakspeare's, according to your taste. I 
have brought it as a good instance of the force of the two words. You 
and I would hold the one for a subjective, phenomenon, the other only for 
objective, and perhaps illustrate the fact, as I have already done elsewhere, 
by the case of two appearances seen in juxta-position, the one by trans- 
mitted, and the other by reflected, Hght. A believer, according to the old 
style, whose ahnanack of faith has the one trifling fault of being for the 
year of our Lord one thousand four, instead of one thousand eight hun- 
dred and twenty, would stickle for the objectivity of both.* 

Andrew Baxter, again, would take a different road fi*om either. He 
would agree with us in calling the apparition subjective, and the figure of 
the husband objective, so far as the uhi of the latter, and its position extra 
cerebrum, or in outward spaces, was in question. But he would differ 
from us in not identifying the agent or proper cause of the former — i. e. 



*Nay, and relate the circumstance for the very purpose of proving the 
reality or objective truth of ghosts. For the lady saw both ! But if tliis 
were any proof at all, it would at best be a superfluous proof, and super- 
seded by the bed-posts, &c. For if she saw the real posts at the same 
time with the ghost, that stood betwixt them, or rather if she continued to 
see the ghost, spite of the sight of these, how should she not see the real 
husband ? What was to make the difiference between the two soUds, or 
intercept the rays from the husband's dressiiig-gown, while it allowed free 
passage to those from the bed-curtain ? And yet I first heard this story, 
from one, who, though professedly an unbeliever in this branch of an- 
cient Pneumatics, (which stood, however, a niche higher, I suspect, in his 
good opinion, than Monboddo's ancierd Metaphysics,) adduced it as a some- 
thing on the other side! — A puzzling fact! and challenged me to answer it. 
And this, too, was a man no less respectable for talents, education, and 
active sound sense, than for birth, fortune, and official rank. So strangely 
are the healthiest judgments suspended by any out of the way combina- 
tions, connected with obscure feelings and inferences, when they happen 
to have occurred within the nanator's own knowledge ! — The pith of this 
argument in support of g-^osf-objects, stands thus : B=::D : C=:D : ergo, 
B:^C. The D, in this instance, being the equal visibility of the figure, and 
of its real duplicate, a logic that would entitle tlie logician to dine oflf a 
neck of mutton in a looking-glass, and to set his little ones in downright 
earnest to hunt tJie rabbits on the wall by candle-light. Things, that fall 
imder the same definition, belong to the same class; and visible, yet not 
tangible, is the generic character of reflections, shadows, and ghosts ; and 
apparitions, their common, and mo.st certainly their proper. Christian name. 



APPENDIX. 



365 



the apparition — with the subject beliolding. The shape beheld he would 
grant to be a making ui the beholder's own brain ; but the facient, he 
would contend, was a several and otfier subject, an intrusive supernumerary 
or squatter in the saine tenement and work-shop, and working with the 
same tools [dpyuva,) as the subject, their rightful owner and original occu- 
pant. And verily I could say something in favour of this theory, if only I 
might put my own interpretation on it — having been hugely pleased with 
the notion of that father of oddities, and oddest of the fathers, old Ter- 
TULLiAN, who considei-s these soggetti eattivi, (that takes possession of oth- 
er folk's kitchens, pantries, sculleries, and water-closets, causing a sad 
to-do at /leo^-quaiters,) as creatures of the same order with the TseniaB, 
Lumbrici, and Ascarides — i. e. the Round, Tape, and Thread-worms. 
Daemones haec sua corpora dilatant et contrahunt ut volunt, sicut Lunibrici 
et alia qvxRdam insecta. Be this as it may, tlie difference between this last 
class of speculators and the common run of ghost-fanciers, will scarcely 
enable us to exhibit any essential change in the meaning of the terms. 
Both must be described as asserting the objective nature of the appearance, 
and in both the term contains the sense of real as opposed to imaginary, 
and of outness no less than of o^i^erness, the difference in the former be- 
ing only, that, in the vulgar belief, the object is outwai'd in relation to tlie 
whole circle, in Baxter's, to the centre only. The one places the ghost 
without, the other within, the line of circumference. 

I have only to add, that these different shades of meaning form no vaUd 
objection to the revival and readoption of these correlative terms in phys- 
iology* and mental analytics, as expressing the two poles of all conscious- 
ness, in their most general form and highest abstraction. For, by the law 
of association, the same metaphorical changes, or shiftmgs and ingraflings 
of tlie primary sense, must inevitably take place in all terms of greatest 
comprehensiveness and simplicity. Instead of subject and object, put 
thought and thing. You will find these liable to the same inconveniences, 
with the additional one of having no adjectives or adverbs, as substitutes 
for objective, subjective, objectively, subjectively. It is sufficient that no 
heterogeneous senses are confounded under the same tenn, as was the 
case prior to Bishop Bramhall's controversy with Hobbes, who had availed 
himself of the (attliat time, and in the common usage) equivalent words, 
compel and oblige, to confound the thought of moral obligation with that 
of compulsion and physical necessity. For the rest, the remedy must be 
provided by a dictionary, constructed on the one only philosophical prin- 
ci])le, which, regardmg words as living growths, offsets, and organs of the 

*" Physiology," according to present usage, treats of the laws, organs, 
functions, &c. of life ; " PJiysics" not so. Now, qiiere : The etymological 
im))ort of the two Avorda being the same, is the difference in their applica- 
tion accidental and arbitrary, or a hidden irony at the assumption on which 
the division is grounded? "i^i/Ot, ut^v ^ur^g, anv Xoyu, or -ioyo? ntpi flivonog ^lr^ 
tuiurig sg-t Aoyoc uXoyoi;. 



356 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

human soul, seeks to trace each historically, through all tlie periods of its 
natural gi'owth, and accidental modifications — a work worthy of a Royal 
ajnd Imperial confederacy, and which would indeed hallow the Alliance ! 
A work which, executed for any one language, would yet be a benefaction 
to the world, and to the nation itself a source of immediate honour and of 
ultimate weal, beyond the power of victories to bestow, or the mines of 
Mexico to purchase. The reahzation of this scheme hes in the far dis- 
tance ; but, m the meantime, it cannot but, beseem every individual com- 
petent to its furtherance, to contribute a small portion of the materials for 
the future temple — from a polished column to a hewn stone, or a plank for 
the scaffolding ; and as they come in, to erect with them sheds for the 
workmen, and temporaiy structures for present use. The preceding anal- 
ysis I would have you regard as my first contribution ; and the tii-st, be- 
cause I have been long convinced that the want of it is a serious impedi- 
ment — I will not say, to that self-knowledge which it concerns all men to 
attain, but — to that self-understanding or insight, which it is all men's in- 
terest that some men should acquire ; that "the heaven-descended, rrv)Oi 
^tavTor," (Juv. Sat.) should exist not only as a wisdom, but as a science. 
But every science will have its rules of art, and with tliese its technical 
terms ; and in this best of sciences, its elder nomenclature has fallen into 
disuse, and no other been j)ut in its place. To bring these back into light 
as so many delving tools dug up from the rubbish of long deserted mines 
and at the same time to exemplify their use and handling, I have drawn 
your attention to the three questions : — What is the primaiy and proper 
sense of the words Subject and Object, hi the technical language of phi- 
losophy ? In what does Objectivity actually exist ? — From what is all ap- 
parent or assumed Objectivity derived or transfeiTcd ? 

It is not the age, you have told me, to bring hard words into fashion. 
Are we to account for this tender mouthedness, on the ground assigned by 
your favourite, Persius : (Sat. iii. 113.) 

" Tentemus fauces : tenero latet ulcus in ore 
Putre, quod baud decoat crustosis radere verbis ?" 

But is the age so avei-se to hard words ? Eidouranion ; Phantasmagoria ; 
Kaleidoscope ; Marmaro-kainomenon {for cleaning mantle-pieces) ; Protoxi- 
des ; Deutoxides ; Tritoxyds ; andDr. Thomson's Latm-greek-cnglish Per- 
oxides ; not to mention the splashing shoals, that 

" confound the language of the nation 

With long-tailed words in osity and ation,''* 

(as our great living master of sweet and perfect English, Hookham Frere, 
has it), would seem to argue the very contraiy. In the train of these, me- 
thinks, object and subject, with their derivatives, look tame, and claim a 
place in the last, or at most, in the humbler seats of the second sj>ecies, 
in the far-noised cluaeification — the long-tailed pigs and pigs without a tail. 



APPENDIX. 357 

Jiye^ hut ml on such dry topics! — I submit. You have touched tlie vuhiei-able 
heel — "lis, quibus siccum kuiien abest," they jiiust needs be d)^. We 
have Lord Bacon's word for it. A topic that requires steadfast intuitions, 
clear conceptions and ideas, as the source and substance of both, and that 
will admit of no substitute for these, in images, fictions, or factitious facts, 
must be dry as the broad-awake of sight and day -light, and desperately 
barren of all that interest which a biisy yet sensual age requires and finds 
in the " uda sonniia," and moist moonshine of an epicurean philosophy. 
For you, however, and for those who, like you, are not so satisfied with 
the present doctrines, but that you would fain try " another and an elder 
lore," (and such there are, I know, and that the number is on the increase,) 
I hazard this assurance, — That let what will come of the terms, yet with- 
out the trutJis conveyed in these terms, there can be no self-knowledge ; 
and without this, no knowledge of any kind. For the fragmentary re- 
collections and recognitions of empiricism* usurping the name of experi- 
ence, can amount to opinion only, and that alone is knowledge which is at 
once real and systematic — or, in one word, organic. Let monk and pietist 
pei-vert the precept into sickly, brooding, and morbid introversions of con- 
sciousness — you have learnt, that, even under the wisest regulations, think- 
ing can go but halfway toward this knowledge. To know the ivJiole truth,"! 
we must likewise act : and he alone acts, who makes — and this can no / 
man do, estranged from Nature. Learn to know thyself in Nature, that ' 
thou mayest understand Nature in thyself. 

But I forget myself My pledge and purpose was to help you over the 
threshold into the outer coiut ; and here I stand, spelling the dim charac- 
ters hi woven in the veil of Isis, in the recesses of the temple. 

I must conclude, therefore, if only to begin again without too abrupt a 

dro}J, lest I should remind you of Mr. in his Survey of Middlesex 

who having digressed, for some half a score of pages, into the heights of 
cosmogony, the old planet between Jupiter and Mars, that went off, and 
spht into the four new ones, besides the smaller rubbish for stone showers 
the formation of the galaxy, and the other world- worlds, on the same 
principles, and by similar accidents, superseding the hypothesis of a Crea- 
tor, and demonstrating the supei-fluity of church tithes and country par- 
sons, takes up the stitch again witli — But to return to the subject of dung. 
God bless you and your 

Affectionate Friend, 

S. T. COLERIDGE. 



*Let y express the conditions under which E, (that is, a series of forms, 
facts, circumstances, &c. presented to the senses of an individual,) will 
become Experience — and we might, not unaptly, define the two words 
thus : E-{-2/=Experience ; E— ?/:=Empiricisni. 



353 AIDS TO REFLECTIOiV. 

L.ETTER IV. 

TO A JUNIOR SOPH, AT CAMBRIDGE. 

Often, my dear young friend ! often and bitterly, do I regret the stupid 
prejudice that made me neglect my mathematical studies, at Jesus. There 
is something to me enigmatically attractive and unaginative in the gene- 
ration of cui-ves, and in the whole geometry of motion. I seldom look at 
a fine prospect or mountain landscape, or even at a grand picture, without 
abstracting the hnes with a teeling similar to that with which I should 
contemplate the graven or painted walls of some temple or palace in Mid 
Africa — doubtful whether it were mere Ai'abesque, or undeciphered cha- 
racters of an unknoAvn tongue, framed when the language of men was 
nearer to that of nature — a language of symbols and correspondences. I 
am, therefore, far more disposed to envy, than join in the laugh against 
your fellow-collegiate, for amusing himself m the geometrical construction 
of leaves and flowers. 

Since the receipt of your last, I never take a turn round the garden 
without thinking of his billow-lines and shell-hnes, under the well-sound- 
ing names of Cumiiids and Conchoids ; they have as much life and poe- 
try for me, as their elder sisters, the Naids, Nereids, and Hama-diyads. I 
pray you, present my best respects to him, and tell him that he brought to 
my recollection the glorious passage in Plotinus, " Should any one inter- 
rogate Nature kow she works if graciously she vouchsafe to answer, she 
will say, it behooves thee to understand me {or better aiid more liieraUy^ to 
go along with me) in silence, even as I am silent, and work without words ;" 
but you have a Plotmus, and may construe it for yourself. — (Ennead 3. 1. 
8. c. 3.) attending particularly to the comparison of the process pursued 
by Nature, with that of the geometrician. And now for your questions 
respecting the moral influence of W.'s minor poems. Of course, this will 
be greatly modified by the character of the recipient. But that in the 
majority of instances it has been most salutary, I cannot for a moment 
doubt. But it is another question, whether verse is the best way of disci- 
phning the mind to that spiritual alchemy, which communicates a sterhng 
value to real or apparent trifles, by using them as moral diagi-ams, as your 
friend uses the oak and fig-leaves as geometrical ones. To have formed 
the habit of looking at every thing, not for what it is relative to the pur- 
poses and associations of men in general, but for the truths which it is suit- 
ed to represent — ^to contemplate objects as words and pregnant symbols — 
the advantages of this my dear D., are so many, and so impoitant, so em- 
inently calculated to excite and evolve the power of sound and connected 
reasoning, of distinct and clear conception, and of genial fcehog, that there 
are few of W.'s finest passages — and who, of living poets, can lay claun 
to half the number ? — that I repeat so often, as that homely quatrain, 



APPENDIX. 359 

O reader ! had you in your mind 

Such stores as silent thought can bring ; 
O gentle reader ! you would find 

A tale in every thing. 

You did not know my revered friend and patron ; or rather, you do 
know the man, and mourn his loss, from the character I have* lately given 
of him. The following supposed dialogue actually took place, in a con- 
versation with him ; and as in part, an illustration of what I have ah-eady 
said, and in part as text and introduction to much I would wish to say, I 
entreat you to read it with patience, spite of the triviality of the subject, 
and mock-heroic of the title. 

SUBSTANCE OF A DIALOGUE, WITH A COMMENTARY ON THE SAME. 

A I never found yet, an inkstand that I was satisfied with. 

B. What would you have an inkstand to be ? What quahties and pro- 
perties would you wish to have combined in an inkstand ? Reflect ! Con- 
sult your past experience ; taking care, however^ not to desire things de- 
monstrably, or self-evidently incompatible with each other ; and the union 
of these desiderata Avill be your ideal of an inkstand. A friend, perhaps, 
suggests some additional excellence that might rationally be desired, till at 
length the catalogue may be considered as complete, when neither your- 
self, nor others can think of any desideratum not anticipated or precluded 
by some one or more of the points already enumerated ; and the concep- 
tion of all these, as realized in one and the same artefact, may be fairly en- 
titled, the 

Ideal of an Inkstand, 

That the pen should be allowed, without requiring any effort or intcr- 
ruptive act of attention from the writer, to dip sufficiently low, and yet be 
prevented, without injuring its nib, from dipping too low, or taking up too 
much ink : That the inkstand should be of such materials as not to decom- 
pose the ink, or occasion a deposition or discoloration of its specific ingredi- 
ents, as, from what cause I know not, is the fault of the black Wedgewood- 
ware inkstands ; that it should be so constructed, that on being overturned 
the uik cannot escape ; and so protected, or made of such stufl^, that in 
case of a blow or fall fi-om any common height, the inkstand itself will 
not be broken ; — that from both these qualities, and from its shape, it may 
be safely and commodiously travelled with, and packed up with books, 
linen, or whatever else is hkely to form the contents of the portmanteau, 
or travelling trunk ; — that it should stand steadily and commodiously, and 
be of as pleasing a shape and appearance as is compatible with its more 

nn the 8th Number of the Friend, as first circulated by the post. 1 
,dare assert, that it is worthy of i)rcservation, and will send a transcri])t in 
my next. 



360 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

important uses ; — and lastly, though of minor regard, and non-essential, 
that it be capable of including other implements or requisites, always, or 
occasionally, connected with the art of writing, as pen-knife, wafers, &c. 
without any addition to the size and weight otherwise desirable, and with- 
out detriment to its more important and proper advantages. 

Now, (continued B.) that we have an adequate notion of what is to be 
wished, let us try what is to be done ! And my friend actually succeeded 
in constructing an inkstand, in which, during the twelve years that have 
elapsed since this conversation, alas ! I might almost say, since his death, 
I have never been able, though I have put my wits on the stretch, to de- 
tect any thing wanting that an inkstand could be rationally desired to pos- 
sess ; or even to imagine any addition, detraction, or change, for use or 
appearance, that I could desire, without involving a contradiction. 

Here ! (methinks I hear the reader exclaim) Here's a meditation on a 
broomstick with a vengeance ! Now, in the first place, I am, and I do not 
care who knows it, no enemy to meditations on broomsticks ; and though 
Boyle had been the real author of the article so waggishly passed off for 
his on poor Lady Berkley ; and though that good man had written it in 
grave good earnest, I am not certain that he would not have been employ- 
ing his time as creditably to liimself, and as profitably for a large class of 
readei's, as the witty dean was while composing the Drapier's Letters, 
though the muses forbid that I should say the same of Maiy Cooke's Pe- 
tition, Hamilton's Bawn, or even the rhyming coiTespondence with Dr. 
Sheridan. In hazarding this confession, however, 1 beg leave to put in a 
provided always, tliat the said Meditation on Broomstick, or aliud quidibet 
ejusdem fariiKB, shall be as ti'uly a meditation as the broomstick is veiily a 
broomstick — and that the name be not a misnomer of vanity, or fraudu- 
lently labelled on a mere compound of brain-dribble and piinter's ink. 
For meditation, I presume, is that act of the mind, by which it seeks tvithin 
either the law of the phenomena, which it had contemplated without, 
[meditatio scierdi/ica,) or semblances, symbols, and analogies, coiTesponsive 
to the same, {meditatio eihica.) At all events, therefore, it implies thinkings 
and tends to make the reader tfiink ; and whatever does this, does what in 
the present over-ex:cited state of society is most wanted, though perhaps 
least desired. Between the thinking of a Harvey or Quarles, and the 
thinking of a Bacon or a Fenelon, many are the degi-ees of difference, 
and many the differences in degree of depth and originality ; but not such 
as to fill up the chasm in genere between thinking and no-thinking, or to 
render the discrimination difficult for a man of ordinary undei-standing^ 
not under the same* contagion of vanity as the writer. Besides, there 



*" Verily, to ask, what meaneth this ? is no Herculean labour. And the 
reader languishes under the same vain glory as his author, and hath laid 
his head on the other knee of Omphale, if he can mistake the thin voca- 
bles of incogitance for the consubstantial w^ords which thought bcgctteth 
and goeth forth m:'—Sir T. Brown, MSS. 



APPENDIX. 361 

are shallows for the full grown, that are the maximum of safe depth for 
the younglings. There are ti-uths, quite common-place to you and me, that 
for the uninstructed many would be new and full of wonder, as the com- 
mon day light to the Lapland child at the re-ascension of its second sum- 
mer. Thanks and honour in the highest to those stars of the first magni- 
tude that shoot their beams downward, and while in their proper form 
they stir and invirtuate the sphere next below them, and natures pre-as- 
similated to their influence, yet call forth likewise^ each afler its own norm 
or model, whatever is best in whatever is susceptible to each, even in the 
lowest. But, excepting these, I confess that I seldom look at Harvey's 
Meditations or Quarles' Emblems,* vvdthout feeling that I would rather 
be the author of those books — of the innocent pleasure, the purifying emo- 
tions, and genial awakenings of the TiumMnity through the whole man, 
which those books have given to thousands and tens of thousands — than 
shine the brightest in the constellation of fame among the heroes and Dii 
minores of literature. But I have a better excuse, and if not a better, yet 
a less general motive, for this solemn trifling, as it will seem, and one that 
will, I trust, rescue my ideal of an inkstand from being doomed to the 
same slut's comer with the de trtbus Capellis^ or de umbra cmm, by virtue 
of the process which it exemplifies ; though I should not quarrel with the 
allotment, if its risible merits allowed it to keep company with the ideal 
immortalized by Rabelais in his disquisition inquisitory De Rehus optime 
ahstergentibus. 

Dared I mention the name of my Idealizery a name dear to science, and 
consecrated by discoveries of far extending utility, it would at least give a 
biographical interest to this trifling anecdote, and perhaps entitle me to 
claim for it a yet higher, as a trait in mimimis^ characteristic of a class of 
powerful and most beneficent intellects. For to the same process of thought 
we owe whatever instruments of power have been bestowed on mankind 
by science and genius ; and only such deserve the name of inventions or 
discoveries. But even in those, which chance may seem to claim, " qu(e 
hoinini obvenisse videantur potius quam homo venire in ea" — which come 
to us rather than we to them — this process will most often be found as the 
indispensable antecedent of the discovery — as the condition, without which 
the suggesting accident would have whispered to deaf ears, unnoticed ; 

*A full collection, a Bibliotheca Specialis, of the books of emblems and 
symbols, of all sects and parties, moral, theological, or political, including 
those in the Centeimaries and Jubilee volumes, published by the Jesuit 
and other religious orders, is a desideratum in our library literature that 
would well employ the talents of our ingenious masters in wood engra- 
ving, etching, and lithography, under the superintendence of a Dibdin, and 
not unworthy of royal and noble patronage, or the attention of a Long- 
man and his compeers. Singly or jointly undertaken, it would do honour 
to these princely merchants in the service of the muses. What stores 
might not a Southey contribute as notes or interspersed prefaces ? I could 
dream away an hour on the subject. 

46 



362 AID3 TO REFLECTION. 

or, like the faces in the fire, or the landscapes made by damp on a white- 
washed wall, noticed for their oddity alone. To the birth of the tree a 
prepared soil is as necessary as the falling seed. A Daniel was present ; 
or the fatal characters in the banquet-hall of Belshazzar might have struck 
more terror, but woidd have been of no more import than the trail of a 
luminous wonn. In the far greater niuiiber, indeed, of these asserted 
boons of chance, it is the accident that should be called the condition — and 
often not so nxuch, but^uerely the occasion — ^while tlie proper cause of 
the invention is to be sought for in the co-existing state and previous habit 
of the observer's rahid. I cannot bring myself to account for respiration 
from tlie stimulus of the mr, without ascribing to the specific stimulability 
of the lungs, a yet more important part in the joint product. To how ma- 
ny myriads of individuals had not the rise and fall of the lid in a boihng 
kettle been famihar, an appearance daily and hourly in sight ? But it 
was reserved for a mind tliat understood what was to be wished, and 
knew what was wanted in order ta it& fulfilment — ^for an armed eyo; 
which meditation had made contemplative, an eye Jirmed from with- 
in, with an instrument of higher powers than glasses can give, with the 
logic of method, the only true Organum Fleviisticum which possesses 
the former arud better half of knowledge in itself as the science of wise 
questioning,* and the other half in reversion — ^it was reserved for the 
Marquis of Worcester to see and have given into his hands, from 
the alternation of expansion and vacuity, a power mightier than that 
of Vulcan and all his Cyclops ; a power that found its practical limit only 
where nature could supply no limit strong enough to confine it. For the 
genial sphit, that saw what it had been seeking, and saw because it sought, 
was it reserved in the dancing lid of a kettle or coffee-urn, to behold the 
future steam-engine, the Talus, with whom the Britomart of science is now 
gone forth to subdue and humanize the planet ! When the bodily organ, 
steadying itself on some chance thing, imitates, as it were, the fixture of 
" the inward eye" on its ideal shapings, then it is that Nature not seldom 
reveals her close affinity with mind, with that more than man which is 
one and the same in all men, and from which 
" the soul receives 
Reason : and reason is her being .'" 

Par. Lost. 
Then it is, that Nature, like an individual spirit or fellow soul, seems to 
think and hold commune with us. If, in the present contempt of all 
mental analysis not contained in Locke, Hartley, or Condillac, it were safe 
to borrow from " scholastic lore" a technical tenn or two, for which I have 
not yet found any substitute equally convenient and serviceable, I should 

*"Prudens quaestio dimidium scientise," says our Verulam, the second 
founder of the science, and the first who on principle applied it to the ideas 
in natme, as his great compeer Plato had before done to the laws in the 
mind. 



APPENDIX. 



363 



say, that at such moments Nature, as another subject veiled bchmd tlie vis- 
ible object without us, solicits the intelligible object hid, and yet struggling 
beneath the subject within us, and hke a helping Lucina, brings it forth 
for us into distinct consciousness and common Ught. Who has not tried 
to get hold of some half-remembered name, mislaid as it were in the me- 
mory, and yet felt to be there ? And who has not experienced, how at 
length it seems given to us, as if some other unperceived had been em- 
ployed in the same search ? And what are the objects last spoken of, 
wliich are in the subject, [i. e. the individual mind) yet not subjective, but 
of universal valichty, no accidents of a particular mind resulting from its 
individual structure, no, nor even of the human mind, as a jiarticular class 
or rank of intelhgencies, but of imperishable subsistence ; and though not 
things, [i. e. shapes in outward space,) yet equally independent of tlie be- 
holder, and more than equally real— what, I say, are those but the names 
of nature ? the nomina quasi ry^t^rot, opposed by the wisest of the Greek 
schools to pha^nomena, as the intelligible coiTespondents or correlatives in 
the mind to the invisible supporters of the appearances in the world of 
the senses, the upholding powers that cannot be seen, but the presence and 
actual being of which must be supposed— nay, ivill be supjjosed, in defi- 
ance of eveiy attempt to the contraiy by a crude materialism, so alien 
from humanity, that there does not exist a language on earth, in which it 
could be conveyed without a contradiction between the sense and the 
words employed to express itl 

Is this a mere random flight in etymology, hunting a bubble, and bring- 
ing back the film ? I cannot think so contemptuously of the attem])t to 
fix and restore the true import of aiiy word ; but, in this instance, I should 
regard it as neither unjjrofitable, nor devoid of rational interest, were it 
only that the knowledge and recejrtion of the import here given, as the 
etymon, or genuine sense of the word, would save Christianity from the 
reproach of containing a doctrine so repugnant to the best feelings of hu- 
manity, as is inculcated in the following passage, among a hundred othei-s 
to the same purpose, in eai-licr and in more recent works, sent forth by 
professed Christians. " Most of the men, who are now alive, or that have 
been living for many ages, are Jews, Heathens, or Mahometans, strangers, 
and enemies to Christ, in whose name alone we can be saved. This con- 
sideration is extremely sad, when we remember liow great an evil it is, 
that so many millions of sons and daughters are born to enter into the posses- 
sion of devils to eternal ag-c^."- Taylor's Holy Dying, p. 28. Even Sir T. 
Brown, while his heart, wrestling with the dogma grounded on the trivial 
interpretation of the word, nevertheless receives it in this sense, and ex- 
presses most gloomy apprehensions " of the ends of those honest worthies 
and philosophers," who died before the birtliof our Saviour, "It is hard," 
says he, "to place those souls in hell, whose worthy lives did teach us vir- 
tue on earth. How strange to them will sound the history of Adam, when 
they shall sutler for him fhcy never heard of I" Yet he concludes by con 



364 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

deinning the insolence of reason in daring to doubt or controvert tlie ver- 
ity of the doctrine, or, " to question tlie justice of the proceeding," tvhick 
verity, he fears, the wofiil lot of ^^ these great examples of virtue must con- 
Jirm.^^ But here I must break off. 

Yours most affectionately, 

S. T. COLERIDGE. 

LETTER V. 

TO THE SAME. 

My dear D. — ^The philosophic poet, whom I quoted in my last, may 
here and there have stretched his prerogative in a war of offence on the ge- 
neral associations of his contemporaries. Here and there, though less than 
the least of what the Buffoons of parody and the Zanies of anonymous 
criticism would have us believe, he may be thought to betray a preference 
of mean or trivial instances for grand morals, a capricious predilection for 
incidents that contrast with the dept]^ and novelty of the truths they are to 
exemplify. But still to the principle, to the habit of tracmg the presence 
of the high in the humble, the mysterious Dii Cabiri, in the form of the 
dwarf Miner, with hammer and spade, and week-day apron, we must at- 
tribute Wordsworth's peculiar power, his leavenijig influence on the opin- 
ions, feelings, and pursuits of his admirers — most on the young of most 
promise and highest acquirements ; and tliat, while others arc read with 
delight, his works are a religion. A case still more in point occurs to me, 
and for the truth of which I dare ]jledge myself. The ait of printing 
alone seems to have been privileged with a Minerval birth — to have risen 
in its zenith ; but next to this, perhaps, the rapid and almost instantaneous 
advancement of pottery from the state in which Mr. Wedgewood found 
the art, to its demonstrably highest practicable perfection, is the most stri- 
king fact in the history of modern improvements achieved by individual 
genius. In his early manhood, an obstinate and harassing complaint con- 
lined him to his room for more than two years ; and to this apparent ca- 
lamity Mr. Wedgewood was wont to attribute his after unprecedented suc- 
cess. For awhile, eis was natural, the sense of thus losing the prime and 
vigour of his Ufe and faculties, preyed on his mind incessantly — aggravated, 
no doubt, by the thought of what he should have been doing this hour and 
this, had he not been tlius severely visited. Then, what he should like to 
take in hand ; and lasdy, what it was desirable to do, and how far it might 
be done, till generalizmg more and more, the mind began to feed on the 
thoughts, which, at their first evolution, (in their laj-va state, may I say ?) 
had preyed on the mind. We imagine tlie presence of what we desire in 
the very act of regretting its absence, nay, in order to regret it the more 
lively ; but while, with a strange wilfulness, we are thus engendering grief 
on grief, nature makes use of the product to cheat us into comfort and ex- 
ertion. The positive shapings, though but of the fancy, will sooner or la- 



APPENDIX. 365 

ter displace tlie mere knowledge of the negative. All activity is in itself 
pleasure ; and according to the nature, powers, and previous habits of the 
sufferer, tlie activity of the fancy will call the other faculties of the soul 
into action. The self-contemplative power becomes meditative, and the 
mind begins to play tlie geometrician with its own thoughts — abstracting 
from them the accidental and individual, till a new and unfailing source of 
employment, the best and surest nepenthe of soHtary pain, is opened out 
in the habit cf seeking the principle and ultimate aim in the most imper- 
fect productions of ait, in tlie least attractive products of nature ; of be- 
holding the possible in the real ; of detecting the essential fonn in the in- 
tentional ; above all, in the collation and constructive imagining of the out- 
ward shapes and material forces that shall best express the essential form, 
in its coincidence with the idea, or realize most adequately that power, 
which is one with its correspondent knowledge, as the revealing body with 
its indwelling soul. 

Anotlier motive will present itself, and one that comes nearer home, and 
is of more general application, if we reflect on the habit here recommen- 
ded, as a source of support and consolation in circumstances under which 
we might otherwise sink back on ourselves, and for want of colloquy with 
our thoughts — with the objects and presentations of the inner sense — lie 
listening to the fretful ticking of our sensations. A resource of costless 
value has that man who has brought himself to a habit of measuring the 
objects around him by their intended or possible ends, and the proportion 
in which this end is realized in each. It is the neglect of thus educatmg 
the senses, of thus disciplining, and in the proper and primitive sense of 
the word, informing, the fancy, that distinguishes at first sight the ruder 
states of society. Every mechanic tool, the commonest and most indis- 
pensable implements of agriculture, might remind one of the school-boy's 
second stage in metrical composition, in which his exercise is to contain 
sense, but he is allowed to eke out the scanning by the interposition, here 
and there, of an equal quantity of nonsense. And even in the existing 
height of national civilization, how many individuals may there not be 
found, for whose senses the non-essential so preponderates, that though 
they may have lived the greater part of their lives in the country, yet with 
some exceptions for the products of their own flower and kitchen garden, 
all the names in the index to Withering's Botany, are superseded for 
them by the one name, a weed ! •' It is only a weed /" And if tliis indif- 
ference stopt here, and this particular ignorance were regarded as the 
disease, it would be sickly to complam of it. But it is as a system that it 
excites regret — it is that, except only the pot-herbs of lucre, and the bar- 
ren double flowers of vanity, their own noblest faculties, both of thought 
and action, are but weeds — in which, should sickness or misfortune wreck 
them on tlie desert island of their own mind, they would either not think 
of seeking, or be ignorant how to find, nourishment or medicine. As it 



366 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

is good to be provided witli work for rainy days, Winter industiy is tlie 
best ciieercr of winter gloom ; and fire-side contrivances for summer use, 
bring summer sunshine and a genial inner warmth, which the friendly 
hearth blaze may conspire with, but cannot bestow or compensate. 

A splenetic friend of mine, who was fond of outraging a truth by some 
whimsical hyperbole, in his way of expressing it, gravely gave it out as his 
opinion, that beauty and genius were but diseases of the consumptive and 
scrofulous order. He would not cany it further ; but yet, he must say, 
that lie Jmd observed that veiy good people, persons of unusual virtue and 
benevolence, were in general afflicted with weak or restless nerves ! Af- 
ter yielding him the expected laugh for the oddity of the remark, I re- 
minded him that if his position meant any thing, the converse must be 
true, and we ought; to have Helens, Medicaean Venuses, Shakspeares, Ra- 
phaels, Howards, Clarksons, and Wilberforces by thous^ids ; and the as- 
semblies and pump-rooms at Bath, Harrowgate, and Cheltenham, rival the 
conversazioni in tlie Elysian Fields. Since then, however, I have often re- 
cuiTcd to the portion of trutli that lay at the bottom of my friend's con- 
ceit. It cannot be denied, that ill health, in a degree below direct pain, 
yet distressingly affecting the sensations, and depressing the animal spirits, 
and thus leaving the nervous system too sensitive to pass into the ordinary 
state of feeliiig, and forcing us to live in alternating positive.^, is* a hot-bed 
for whatever geniis and tendencies, whether in head or heait, have been 
planted there independently. 

Surely, there is nothing fanciful in considering tliis as a providential 
provision, and as one of the countless proofs that we are most benignly, as 
well as wonderfully, consti'ucted ! The cutting and imtating grain of sand 
which by accident or incaution has got within the shell, incites the living 
innate to secrete from its own resources the means of coating the intru- 
sive substance. And is it not, or may it not be, even so, Avith the in-egu- 
larities and unevenness of health and fortune in our own case ? We, too, 
may turn diseases into pearls. The means and materials are withm our- 
selves ; and the process is easily understood. By a law common to all 



^Perhaps it confirms while it limits this theory, that it is chiefly verified 
in men whose genius and pursuits are eminently subjective, where the mind 
is intensely watchful of its own acts and shapings, thinks, while it feels, in 
order to understand, and then to generalize that feeUng ; above all, where 
all the powers of the mind are called into action, simultaneously, and yet 
severally, while in men of equal, and perhaj)s deservedly equal celebrity, 
whose jjui-suits are objective and universal, demanding the energies of at- 
tention and abstraction, as in mechanics, mathematics, and all departments 
of physics and physiology, the veiy contrary would seem to be exempli- 
fied. Shakspeare died "at 53, and probably of a decline ; and in one of 
his sonnets lie speaks of himself as gray' and prematurely old ; and Mil- 
ton, who suffered from infancy those intense head-aches which ended in 
blindness, insinuates that he was never free from pain, or the anticipation 
of pain. On the other hand, the Nevvtons and Leibnitzes have, in general, 
been not only long-hved, but men of robust health. 



APPENDIX. 3G7 

animal life, we are incapable of attending for any continuance to an ob- 
ject, the paits of which are indistinguishable from each other, or to a se- 
ries, where the successive links are only numerically different. Nay, the 
more broken and iiTitating, (as, for instance, the fractious noise of the 
dashing of a lake on its border, compared with the swell of the sea on a 
calm evening,) the more quickly does it exhaust our power of noticing it. 
The tooth-ache, where the suffering is not extreme, often finds its speedi- 
est cure in the silent pillow ; and gradually destroys our attention to itself 
by preventing us from attending to any thing else. From the same cause, 
many a lonely patient listens to his moans, till he forgets the pain that oc- 
casioned them. The attention attenuates, as its sphere contracts. But this 
it does even to a i)oint, where the person's own state of feeling, or any 
particular set of bodily vsensations, are the direct object. The slender thread 
winding in narrower and narrower circles round its source and centre, 
ends at length in a chrysalis, a dormitoiy within which the spinner un- 
dresses himself in his sleep, soon to come forth quite a neiv creature. 

So it is in the slighter cases of suflTering, where suspension is extinction, 
or followed by long interv'als of ease. But where the unsubdued causes 
are ever on the watch to renew the pain, that thus forces our attention in 
upon ourselves, the same baiTcnness and monotony of the object that in 
minor grievances lulled the mind into oblivion, now goads it into action by 
the restlessness and natural impatience of vacancy. We cannot perhaps 
divert the attention ; our feelings will still form the main subject of our 
thoughts. But something is already gained, if, instead of attending to our 
sensations, we begin to think of them. But in order to this, we must re- 
flect on these thoughts — or the same sameness will soon sink them down 
into mere feehng. And in order to sustain the act of reflection on our 
thoughts, we are obliged more and more to compare and generalize them, 
a process that to a certain extent implies, and in a still greater degree ex- 
cites and introduces, the act and power of abstracting the thoughts and 
images from their original cause, and of reflecting on them widi less and 
less reference to the individual sufl^ering that had been their first subject. 
The vis medicatrix of Nature is at work for us in all our faculties and ha- 
bits, the associate, reproductive, comparative, and combinatory. 

That this source of consolation and support may be equally in your 
power as in mine, but that you may never have occasion to feel equally 
grateful for it, as I have, and do in body and estate, is the fervent wish of 
your affectionate 

S. T. COLERIDGE. 



APPENDIX 



TO THE 



STATESMAN'S MANUAL, 



CONTAINING 



COMMENTS AND ESSAYS. 



[A.] 

In tins use of the word " sufficiency," I prc-euppose on the part of the 
reader or hearer, a humble and docile state of mind, and above all the 
practice of prayer, as the necessary condition of such a state, and the best 
if not the only means of becoming sincere to our own hearts. Christianity 
is especially differenced from all other religions by being grounded on 
facts which all men alike have the means of ascertaining — the same means, 
with equal facility, and which no man can ascertain for another. Each 
person must be herein querist and respondent to himself; Am I sick, and 
therefore need a physician ? — ^Am I in spiritual slavery, and therefore need 
a ransomer ?— Have I given a pledge, which must be redeemed, and which 
I cannot redeem by my own resources ? — Am I at one with God, and is my 
will concentric with that holy power, which is at once the constitutive will 
and the supreme reason of the universe ? — If not, must I not be mad if I 
do not seek, and miserable if I do not discover and embrace, the means 
of at-one-ment ? To collect, to weigh, and to appreciate historical proofs 
and presumptions is not equally wdthin the means and opportunities of eve- 
ry man alike. The testimony of books of history is one of the strong and 
stately pillars of the church of Chiist ; but it is not the foundation ; nor 
can it without loss of essential faith be mistaken or substituted for the 
foundation. There is a sect, which,, in its scornful pride of antipathy to 
mystericSy (that is, to all those doctrines of the pure and intuitive reason^ 
which transcend the understanding, and can never be contemplated by it, 
but through a false and falsifying perspective,) affects to condemn all in- 
ward and preliminary experience, as enthusiastic delusion or fanatic con- 

47 



370 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

tagion. Historic evidence, on the other hand, these men treat, as tlie Jews 
of old treated the brazen serpent, which was the relic and evidence of the 
miracles worked by Moses in the wilderness. They turned it into an idol : 
and therefore Hezekiali (who clave to the Lord, and did right in the sight 
of tlie Lord, so that after him was none hke him, among all the kings of 
Judah, nor any that were before liim) not oidy ' removed the high places, 
and brake the images, and cut down the groves ;' but likewise brake in 
pieces the Brazen Serpent that Moses had made : for the children of Is- 
rael did bum incense to it. 

To preclude an error so pernicious, I request that to the wilful neglect 
of those outward ministrations of the word which all EngUshmen have 
tlie privilege of attending, the reader will add the setting at nought like- 
wise of those mward means of gi'ace, witliout which the language of the 
Scriptures, in the most faithful translation ai^d in tlie purest and plainest 
English, must nevertheless continue to be a dead language : a sun-dial by 
moonlight 

[R] 

Not without great hesitation should I express a suspicion concerning 
the genuineness of any, the least unportant passage in the New Testa- 
ment, unless I could adduce the most conclusive evidence from the earli- 
est manuscripts and commentators, in support of its interpolation : well 
knowing that such peniiission has already opened a door to the most fear- 
ful license. It is indeed, in its consequences, no less than an assumed 
right of picking and chusing our religion out of the Scriptures. Most as- 
suredly I would never hazard a suggestion of this kind in any instance in 
which the retention or the omission of the words could make the slightest 
difference with regard to fact, miracle, or precept. Still less would I start 
the question, where the hypothesis of their interpolation could be wrested 
to the discountenancing of any article of doctrine concerning which dis- 
sension existed : no, not though the doubt or disbelief of the doctrine had 
been confined to those, whose faith few but themselves would honour with 
the name of Christianity; however reluctant we might be, both from the 
courtesies of social life and the nobler chaiities of humility, to withhold 
from the persons themselves the title of Christians. 

But as there is nothing in v. 40 of Matthew, c. xii. which would fall with- 
in this general rule, I dare permit myself to propose the query, whether 
there does not exist internal evidence of its being a gloss of some mileam- 
ed, though pious, christian of the first century, which had slipt into the 
text ? The following are my reasons. 1. It is at all events a comment on 
the words of our Saviour, and no part of his speech. 2. It interrupts the 
course and breaks down the jut and application of our Lord's argument, 
as addressed to men, who, from their unwillingness to sacrifice their vain 
traditions, gainful hypocrisy, and pride both of heart and of deameanor, 



APPENDIX. 371 

demanded a miracle for the confirmation of moml truths that must have 
borne witness to their own divhiity in tlie consciences of all who had 
not rendered themselves conscience-proof. 3. The text strictly taken is ir- 
reconcileable with the fact as it is afterwards related, and as it is univer- 
sally accepted. I at least remember no calculation of time, accordhig to 
which the interspace from Friday evening to the earliest dawn of Sunday 
morning, coirid be represented as three days and three nights. As three 
days our Saviour, himself speaks of it (John ii. 19,) and so it would be de- 
scribed in conmioii language as well as according to the use of the Jews ; 
but 1 can find no other part of Scrij)ture which authorizes the phrase of 
three nights. This gloss is not found either in the repetition of the cir- 
cumstances by Matthew himself (xvi. 4,) nor in Mark, (viii. 12,) nor in 
Luke, (xii. 54 :) — Mark's narration doth indeed most strikingly confirm my 
secon<l reason, drawn from the pui-pose of our Saviour's argument : for 
the allusion to the prophet Jonas is omitted altogether, and the refusal 
therefore rests on the depravity of the applicants, as proved by the wan- 
tonness of the application itself All signs must have been useless to such 
men as long as the great sign of the times, the call to repentance, remain- 
ed without effect. 4. The gloss coiTesponds with the known fondness of 
the earlier Jewish converts, and indeed of the christians in general of the 
second centurj', to bring out in detail and into exact square eveiy acconmio- 
dation of the Old Testament, which they either found in the gos})els, or 
made for themselves. It is too notorious into what strange fancies, (not 
always at safe distance from dangerous errors) the oldest uninspired wri- 
ters of the christian church were seduced by this passion of transmuting, 
without scriptural authority, incidents, names, and even mere sounds of 
the Hebrew Scriptm-es into evangelical types and correspondencies. 

An aMUional reason may perhaps occiu* to those wlio alone would be 
({ualified to appreciate its force : viz. to biblical scholars familiar witli the 
opinions and arguments of sundry doctois, rabbinical as well as christian, 
respecting the first and second chapter of Jonah. 

[C] 

Reason and Religion diflfer only tis a tAvo-fold application of the same 
power. But if we are obliged to distinguish, we must ideally separate. In 
this sense I affirm, tliat Reason is the knowledge of the laws of the Whole 
considered as One : and as such it is contradistinguished from the Under- 
standing, which concerns itself exclusively with the quantities, qualities, 
and relations o£ particidars in time and space. The Understanding, 
tlierefore, is the science of pha^nomena, and their subsumption under dis- 
tinct kinds and sorts, {genus and species.) Its functions supply the rules 
and constitute the possilnlity of Experience ; but remain mere logical 
forms, except as far as mcderials are given by the senses or sensations. The 
Reason, on the other hand, is the science of the universal^ having the 



372 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

ideas of Oneness and Allness as its two elements or primaiy factors. 
In the language of tlie old schools, 

Unity -f- OmnCity 
Totality. 



The Reason first manifests itself in man by the tendency to the compre- 
Iiension of all as one. We caii neither rest in aji infinite that is not at tlie 
same time a whole, nor in a whole that is not infinite. Hence the natu- 
ral Man is always in a state either of resistance or of captivity to the un- 
derstanding and the fancy, which cannot represent totality without limit ; 
and he either loses the One in the striving after the Infinite, (i. e. Athe- 
ism with or without polytheism) or the Infinite in the striving after the 
One, (i. e. anthropomorphic monotheism.) 

The rational instinct, therefore, taken abstiactedly and unbalanced, did 
Ml itsdf^ ('ye shall be as gods ; Gen. iii. 5.) and its consequences, ;the lusts 
of the flesh, the eye, and the understanding, as in vei*se the sixth,) form 
the original temptation, through which man fell : and in all ages has con- 
tinued to originate the san-3, even from Adam, in w^iom we all fell, to the 
atheists who deified the human reason in the person of a haiiot during the 
earher period of the French revolution. 

To this tendency, therefore. Religion, as the consideration of the Par- 
ticular and Individual (in which respect it takes up and identifies with 
itself the excellence of the Understanding) but of the Individual, as it ex- 
ists and has its being in the Universal (in w^hich respect it is one with the 
pure Reason^) to this tendency, I say, Religion assigns the due hmits, and 
is the echo of the ' voice of the Lord God walkmg in the garden.' Hence 
in all the ages and countries of civihzation, Religion has been the parent 
and fosterer of the Fine Arts, as of Poetry, Music, Painting, &c. the com- 
mon essence of which consists in a similar union of the Universal and the 
Individual. In this union, moreover, is contained the true sense of tlie 
Ideal. Under the old Law the altar, the curtains, the priestly vestments, 
and whatever else was to represent the Beauty of Holiness, had an ideal 
character : and the Temple itself was a master-piece of Ideal Beauty. 

There exists in the human being, at least in man fully developed, no 
mean symbol of Tri-unity, in Reason, Religion, and the Will. For each 
of the three, though a distinct agency, im})Ues and demands the other two, 
and loses its own nature at the moment that from distinction it jiasses into 
division or separation. The perfect frame of a man is the perfect frame 
•of a state : and in the fight of this idea we must read Plato's Republic. 



APPENDIX. 373 

For, if I judge rightly, this celebrated work is to Vriie Ilistoiy of the 
Town of Man-soul,' what Plato w^as to John Bunyan. 

The comprehension, impartiality, and far-sightedness of Reason, (the 
Legislative of our nature,) taken singly and exclusively, becomes mere 
visionariness in itUeUed^ and indolence or hard-heartedness in morals. It 
is the science of cosmopolitism without country, of pliilanthropy without 
neighbourliness or consanguinity, in short, of all the impostures of that phi- 
losophy of the French revolution, which would sacrifice Each to the shad- 
owy idol of All. For Jacobinism is monstrum hyhiidwn, made up in part 
of despotism, and in part of abstract reason misa])plied to objects that be- 
long entirely to experience and the imderstanding. Its instmcts and mode 
of action are in strict correspondence with its origin. In all places Jaco- 
binism betrays its mixt parentage and nature, by applymg to the brute pas- 
sions and physical force of the multitude (that is, to man as a mere ani- 
mal,) in order to build up government and the frame of society on natural 
rights instead of social privileges — on the universals of abstract reason in- 
stead of positive institutions, the lights of specific experience, and the 
modifications of existing circumstances. Right, in its most proper sense, 
is the creature of law and statute, and only in the technical language of 
the courts has it any substantial and independent sense. In morals, Right 
is a word without meaning except as the correlative of DutJ^ 

From all tliis it follows, that Reason as the science of All as the Whole, 
must be intei-penetrated by a Power, that represents the concentration of 
All in Each — a Power that acts by a contraction of universal truths into 
individual duties, as the only form in which those truths can attain fife and 
reality. Now this is Religion, which is the Executive of our nature, 
and on this account tlie name of highest dignity, and the symbol of sove- 
reignty. 

Yet this again — yet even Religion itself, if evci* in its too exclusive de- 
votion to the specific and individiicd it neglects to interpose the contempla- 
tion of the universal, changes its being into Superstition ; and becoming 
more and more earthly and sei-vile, as more and more estranged from the 
one in all, goes wandering at length with its pack of amulets, bead-rolls, 
periapts, fetisches, and the like pedlary, on pilgrimages to Loretto, Mec- 
ca, or the temple of Juggernaut, arm in arm with sensuality on one side 
and self-torture on the other, followed by a motley group of friars, pardon- 
ers, faquirs, gamesters, flagellants, mountebanlis, and harlots. 

But neither can reason or religion exist or co-exist as reason and reli- 
gion, except as far as they are actuated by the Will, (the platonic ©i.uoc,) 
which is the sustaining, coercive and ministerial power, the functions of 
which in the individual correspond to the oflicers of war and police in the 
ideal Republic of Plato. In its state of immanence (or indwelling) in rea- 
son and rehgion, the Will ai)pears iucUfFcrently, as wisdom or as love : 
two names of the same power, the Ibrmcr more intelligential, the latter 



374 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

niore spiritual ; the former more frequent in the Old, thelatter in the New 
Testament. But in'its utmost abstraction and consequent state of repro- 
bation, the Will becomes satanic pride and rebelHous self-idolatry in the 
relations of the spirit to itself, and remorseless despotism relatively to oth- 
ers ; the more hopeless as the more obdurate by its subjugation of sensual 
impulses — by its superiority to toil and pain and pleasure ; in short, by the 
fearful resolve to find in itself alone the one absolute motive of action, 
under which all other motives from within and fi'om without must be ei- 
ther subordinated or crushed. 

This is tlie character which Milton has so philosophically as well as sub- 
limely embodied in the Satan of his Paradise Lost. Alas! too often has 
it been embodied in real life ! Too often has it given a dark and savage 
grandeur to the historic page ! And wherever it has appeared, under 
whatever circumstances of time and country, the same ingredients have 
gone to its composition ; and it has been identified by the same attributes. 
Hope in wiiich there is no Cheerfulness ; Stedfastness within and immo- 
vable Resolve, with outward Restlessness and whirling Activity ; Violence 
with Guile ; Temerity with Cunning ; and as the result of all, Intennina- 
bleness of Object with perfect indifterence of Means ; these are the qual- 
ities that have constituted the Commanding Genius ! these are the Marks, 
that have cliaracterized the Masters of Mischief, the Liberticides, and migh- 
ty Hunters of Mankind, from Nimrod to Napoleon. And from inattention 
to the possibility of such a character as well as from ignorance of its ele- 
ments, even men of honest intentions too frequently become fascinated. 
Nay, whole nations have been so far duped by this want of insight and 
reflection as to regard with palliative admiration, instead of wonder and 
abhorrence, the Molochs of human nature, who are indebted, for the fai- 
larger portion of their meteoric success, to their total want of principle, 
and who surpass the generahty of tlieir fellow creatures in oiie act of cour- 
age only, that of daring to say with their whole heart, ' Evil be thou my 
good !' All system so far is power ; and a systematic criminal, self-consist- 
ent and entire in wickedness, who entrenches villainy within villainy, and 
baiTicadoes crime by crime, has removed a world of obstacles by the mere 
decision, that he will have no obstacles, but those of force and brute mat- 
ter. 

I have only to add a few sentences, in completion of this note, on the 
Conscience and on the Understanding. The conscience is neither rea- 
son, rcUgion, or will, but an experience (sui generis) of the coincidence of 
the human will with reason and religion. It might, perhaps, be called a 
spiritual sensation ; but that there lurks a contradiction in the terms, and 
.that it is often deceptive to give a common or generic name to that, which 
being unique, can have no fair analogy. Strictly sjjcaking, therefore, the 
conscience is neither a sensation or a sense ; but a testifying state, best de- 
scribed in the words of our hturgy, as the peace of God that passeth 

ALL UNDERSTANDINt;. 



APPENDIX. 375 

Of this latter faculty, considered in and of itself, the peripatetic aphorism, 
nihil in intellectii quod non prius in sensu, is strictly true, as well as the 
legal maxim, do rebus non apparentihus et non cxistentibus eadem est 
ratio. The eye is not more inappropriate to sound, than the mere under- 
standing to tho modes and laws of spiritual existence. In this sense I 
have used the term ; and in this sense I assert that " the understanding or 
experimental faculty, unin-adiated by the reason and the spirit, has no ap- 
propriate object but the material world in relation to our wordly interests. 
The far-sighted prudence of man, and the more narrow but at the same 
time far less fallible cunning of the fox, are both no otlier than a nobler 
substitute for salt, in order that the hog may not putrefy before its destined 
hour ! ! Friend, p. 80. 

It must not, however, be overlooked, that this insulation of the under- 
standing is our own act and deed. The man of healthful and undivided 
intellect uses his understanding in this state of abstraction only as a tool 
or organ : even as the arithmetician uses numbers, that is, as the means 
not tlie end of knowledge. Our Shakespeare in agreement both with 
truth and the i)liilosophy of his age names it " discourse of reason," as an 
instrumental faculty belonging to reason : and Milton opi)oses tlie discursive 
to the intuitive, as the lower to the higher, 

"Differing but in degi-ee, in kind the same !" 

Of the discursive understanding, which forms for itself general notions 
and terms of classification for the purpose of comparing and arrang- 
ing pha)nomcna, the Characteristic is Clearness without Depth. It con- 
templates the unity of things in their limits only, and is consequent- 
ly a knowledge of superficies without substance. So much so, indeed, 
that it entangles itself in contradictions in the very effort of comprehend- 
ing the idea of substance. The completing power which unites clearness 
with depth, the plenitude of the sense with the comprehensibility of the 
understanding, is the imagination, impregnated with which the under- 
standing itself becomes intuitive, and a living power. The reason, (not 
the abstract reason, not the reason as the mere organ of science, or as the 
faculty of scientific principles and schemes a priori ; but reason) as the 
integral sjmit of the regenerated man, reason substantiated and vital, ' one 
only, yet manifold, overseeing all, and going through all understanding ; 
the breath of the power of God, and a pure influence from the glory of 
the Almighty ; which remaining in itself regenerateth all other powers, 
and in all ages entermg into holy souls maketh them friends of God and 
prophets;' (Wisdom of Solomon, c. vii.) the Reason, without being either 
the Sense, the Understanding or the Imagination, contains all three with- 
in itself, even as the mind contains its thoughts, and is present in and 
through them all ; or as the expression pervades the difierent features of 
an intelligent countenance. Each individual must bear witness of it to 
his own mind, even as he describes life and light : and with the silence of 



376 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

light it describes Itself, and dwells in us only as far as we dwell in ii. It 
cannot in strict language be called a faculty, much less a personal proper- 
ty, of any human mind ! He, with whom it is present, can as little appro- 
priate it, whether totally or by partition, as he can claim ownershij) in 
the breathing air or make an inclosure in the cope of heaven. 

The object of the preceding discourse was to recommend tlie Bible, as 
the end and center of our reading- and meditation. I can truly affirm of 
myself, that my studies have been profitable and availing to me only so far, 
as I have endeavored to use all my other knowledge as a glass enabling me 
te receive more light in a wider field of vision from the word of God. If 
you have accompanied me thus far, thoughtful reader ! let it not weary 
you if I digress for a few moments to anotlier book, likewise a revelation 
of God — ^the gi-eat book of his servant Nature. That in its obvious sense 
and literal interpretation it declares the being and attributes of the Almigh- 
ty Father, none but the fool in heart has ever dared gainsay. But it has 
been the music of gentle and pious minds in all ages, it is the poetry of 
all human nature, to read it likewise in a figurative sense, and to find there- 
in correspondencies and symbols of the spiritual world. 

I have at this moment before me, in the flowery meadow, on which 
my eye is now reposing, one of its most soothing chapters, in which 
there is no lamenting word, no one character of guilt or anguish. For 
never can I look and meditate on the vegetable creation witliout a feeling 
similar to that with which we gaze at a beautiful infant that has fed itself 
asleep at its mother's bosom, and smiles in its strange dream of obscure 
yet happy sensations. The same tender and genial pleasure takes posses- 
sion of me, and this pleasure is checked and drawn inward by the like 
aching melancholy, by the same whispered remonstrance, and made rest- 
less by a similar impulse of aspiration. It seems as if the soul said to 
hei-self : from this state hast thou fallen ! Such shouldst thou still become, 
thy Self all permeable to a holier power ! thy Self at once hidden and 
glorified by its own transparency, as the accidental and dividuous in this 
quiet and harmonious object is subjected to the life and light of nature 
which shines in it, even as the transmitted power, love and wisdom, of 
God over all fills, and shines through, nature ! But what the plant is, by 
an act not its own and unconsciously — that must thou make thyself to be- 
come ! must by prayer and by a watchful and iniresisting spirit, join at 
least with the preventive and assisting grace to make thyself, in that light 
of conscience which inflameth not, and with that knowledge which puf- 
feth not up. 

But further, and with particular reference to that undivided Reason, 
neither merely speculative or merely practical, but both in one, which I 
have in this annotation endeavoured to contra-distinguish fi'om the Un- 
derstanding, I seem to myself to behold in the quiet objects, on which I 
am gazing, more than an arbitrary illustration, more than a mere «mtic, tho 



APPENDIX. 



377 



work of my own Fancy ? I feel an awe, as if there were before my eyes 
the same Power, as tliat of the Reason — tlie same Power in a lower dig- 
nity, and therefore a symbol established in the truth of things. I feel it 
alike, whether I contemplate a single tree or flower, or meditate on vege- 
tation throughout the world, as one of the great organs of the life of na- 
ture. Lo ! — with the rising sun it commences its outward life and enters 
into open communion with all the elements, at once assimilating them to 
itself and to each other. At the same moment it strikes its roots and un- 
folds its leaves, absorbs and respires, steams forth its cooling vapour and 
finer fragrance, and breathes a repairing spirit, at once the food and tone 
of the atmosphere, into the atmosphere that feeds it. Lo ! — at the touch 
of light how it returns an air akin to light, and yet with the same pulse 
effectuates its own secret growth, still contracting to fix what expanding it 
had refined. Lo ! — how upholding the ceaseless plastic motion of the 
parts in the profoundest rest of the whole it becomes the visible organis- 
mus of the wliole silent or elementary life of nature, and, therefore, in in- 
corporating the one extreme becomes the symbol of the other ; the natural 
symbol of that higher life of reason, in which the whole series (known to 
us in our present state of being) is perfected, in which, therefore, all the 
subordinate gi*adations recur, and are re-ordained "m more ahtndant hon- 
or.^* We had seen each in its own cast, and we now recognize them all 
as co-existing in the unity of a higher form, the Cro^\^l and Completion 
of the Earthly, and the Mediator of a new and heavenly series. Thus, 
fimally, the vegetable creation, in the simphcity and uniformity of its in- 
ternal stmcture symbolizing the unity of nature, while it represents the 
onmiformity of her delegated functions in its external variety and mani- 
foldness, becomes the record and chronicle of her ministerial acts, and in- 
chases the vast unfolded volume of the earth with the hieroglyphics of her 
history. 

O ! — ^if as the plant to the orient beam, we would but open out our minds 
to that holier light, which 'being compared with light is found before it, 
more beautiful than the sun, and above all the order of stars,' (Wisdom of 
Solomon, vii. 29,) ungenial, aHen, and adverse to our very nature would ap- 
pear the Iwastful wisflom which, beginning in France, gradually tampered 
with the taste and literature of all the most civilized nations of Christendom, 
seducing the understanding fi^om its natural allegiance, and therewith from 
all its own lawfi.il claims, titles^ and privileges. It was placed as a ward of 
honour in the courts of faith and reason ; but it chose to dwell alone, and be- 
came an harlot by the way-side. The commercial spirit, and the ascen- 
dancy of the experimental philosophy which took place at the close of the 
fourteenth century, though both good and beneficial in their own kinds, 
combined to foster its corruption. Flattered and dazzled by the real or 
supposed discoveries, which it had made, the more the understanding was 
enriched, the more did it become debased ; till science itself put on a self- 

48 . 



378 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

ish and sensual character ; and immediate utility, in exclusive reference to 
the gratification of the wants and appetites of the animal, the vanities and 
caprices of the social, and the ambition of the political, man, was imposed 
as the test of all intellectual powers and pursuits. fVoiih was degraded 
into a lazy synonyme of value ; and value was exclusively attached to the 
interest of the senses. But though the growing alienation and self-suffi- 
ciency of the understanding was perceptible at an earlier period, yet it 
seems to have been about the middle of the last centuiy, under the influ- 
ence of Voltaire, D'Alembert, Diderot, say generally of the so-called En- 
cyclopaedists, and alas !— of then- crowned proselytes and disciples, Fred- 
erick, Joseph, and Catharine, that the Human Understanding, and this too 
in its narrowest form, was tempted to throw off all show of reverence to 
the spiritual and even to tlie moral powers and impulses of the soul ; and 
usurpmg the name of reason openly joined the bannei-s of Anti-christ, at 
once the pander and the prostitute of sensuality, and whether in the cabi- 
net, laboratoiy, the dissecting-room, or the brothel, alike busy in the 
schemes of vice and irreligion. Well and tmly might it, thus personified 
in our fancy, have been addressed in the words of the evangelical prophet, 
which I have once before quoted : "Thou hast said, none is my ovei-seer ! 
thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee ! — and thou hast 
said in thy heart, I am, and there is none besides me!" (Isaiah, xlvii. 
10.) 

Prurient, bustling, and revolutionary, this French wisdom has never 
more than grazed the surfaces of knowledge. As political economy, m its 
zeal for the increase of food, it habitually overlooked the qualities and 
even the sensations of those that were to feed on it. As ethical philoso- 
phy, it recognized no duties which it could not reduce into debtor and 
creditor accounts on the ledgers of self-love, where no coin was sterling 
which could not be rendered into agreeable sensations. And even in its 
height of self-complacency as chemical art, greatly am I deceived if it has 
not from the very beginning mistaken the products of destmction, cada- 
vera rerum, for the elements of composition : and most assuredly it has 
dearly purchased a few brilliant mventions at the loss of all communion 
with hfe and the spirit of nature. As the process, such the result ! a heart- 
less frivolity alteniating with a sentimentality as heartless — an ignorant 
contempt of antiquity — a neglect" of moral self-discipUne — a deadening of 
the religious sense, even in the less reflecting forms of natural piety — a 
scornful reprobation of all consolations and secret refi-eshings from above — 
and as the caput mortuum of human nature evaporated, a French nature 
of rapacity, levity, ferocity and presumption. 

Man of undei-standjng, canst thou command the stone to lie, canst tliou 
bid the flower bloom, where thou hast placed it in thy classification ? — 
Canst thou persuade the living or the inanimate to stand separate even as 
thou hast separated them ? — And do not far rather all things spread out be- 



APPENDIX. 379 

fore thee in glad confusion and heedless intennixture, even as a lightsome 
chaos on which the spirit of God is moving ? — Do not all press and swell 
under one attraction, and Vive together in promiscuous harmony, each joy- 
ous in its own kind, and in the immediate neighbourhood of Myriad oth- 
ei*s that in the system of thy understanding are distant as the Poles ? — If 
to mint and to remember names delight thee, still anange and classify and 
pore and pull to pieces, and peep into Death to look for Life, as monkies 
put their hands behind a looking-glass! Yet consider, in the first sabbath 
which thou imposest on the busy discursion of thought, that all this is at 
best little more than a teclmical memory : that hke can only be known by 
like : that as truth is the correlative of Behig, so is tlie act of Being tlie 
great organ of Truth : that in natural no less than in moral science, quan- 
tum sumus, scimus. 

That, which we find in oui-selves, is (gradu mutato) the substance and 
tlie hfe of all our knowledge. Without this latent presence of the ' I am,' 
all modes of existence in the external world would flit before us as color- 
ed shadows, with no greater depth, root, or fixture, than the image of a 
rock hath in a ghding stream, or the rain-bow on a fast-sailing rain-stonn. 
The human mind is the compass, in which the laws and actuations of all 
outward essences are revealed as the dips and declinations. (The appli- 
cation of Geometiy to the forces and movements of the material world is 
both proof and instance.) The fact therefore, that the mind of man in its 
own primary and constituent forms represents tlie laws of nature, is a mys- 
tery which of itself should suffice to make us religious : for it is a problem 
of which God is the only solution, God, the one before all, and of all, and 
through all ! — ' True natural philosophy is comprized in the study of the 
science and language of symbols.'* The power delegated to nature is all in 
eveiypart: and by a symbol I mean, not a metaphor or allegory or any 
other figure of speech or form of fancy, but an actual and essential part of 
tliat, the whole of which it represents. Thus our Lord speaks symbolic- 
ally when he says that * the eye is the hght of the body.' The genuine 
naturalist is a dramatic poet in his own line : and such as our myriad-mind- 
ed Shalispeare is, compared with the Racines and Metastasios, such and 
by a similar process of self-transformation would the man be, compared 
wath the Doctors of the mechanic school, who should construct his phys- 
iology on the heaven-descended, Know Thyself 

Even *the visions of the night' speak to us of powers within us that are 
not dreamt of in their day-dream ot philosophy. The dreams, which we 
most often remember, are produced by the nascent sensations and inward 
motiunculse (the fluxions) of the waking state. Hence, too, they are more 
capable of being remembered, because passing more gradually into our 
waking thoughts they are more likely to associate with our first percep- 
tions after sleep. Accordingly, when the nervous system is approaching 
to the waking state, a sort of under-consciousness blends with our dreams, 



380 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

that, ill all, wc Imagine as seen or heard, our own self is the vcntiilotiuiBf, 
and moves the slides in tlie magic-lanthorn. We dream about things / 

But there are few persons of tender feelings and reflecting habits, who 
have not, more or less often in the course of their lives, experienced 
dreams of a very different kind, and during the profoundest sleep that is 
compatible with after-recollection — States, of which it would be scarcely 
too bold to say that we dream the things themselves ; so exact, minute, and 
vivid beyond all power of ordinaiy memory is the portraiture, so marvel- 
lously perfect is our brief metempsychosis into the very being, as it were, 
of the person who seema to address us. If I may be allowed to quote 
from myself, (Friewd, No. 8.) *the dullest wight is at times a Shakspeare 
in his dreams.' Not only may we expect, that men of strong rehgious 
feelings, but little religious knowledge, will occasionally be tempted to re- 
gard such occurrences as supernatural visitations ; but it ought not to sur- 
prise us, if such dreams should sometimes be confirmed by the event, as 
though they had actually possessed a character of divination. For who 
shall decide, how far a perfect reminiscence of past experiences, (of ma- 
ny perhaps that had escaped our reflex consciousness at the time) — wlio 
shall determine, to what extent this reproductive imagination, unsophisti- 
cated by the will, and undistracted by intrusions from the senses, may or 
may not be concentered and sublimed into foresight and presentiment ? 
There would be nothing herein either to foster superstition on the one 
hand, or to justify contemptuous disbelief on the other. Incredulity is but 
Credulity seen from behind, bowing and nodding assent to the Habitual 
and the Fashionable. 

To the touch (or feeling) belongs tlie proximate ; to the eye, the distant. 
Now little as I might be disposed to believe, I should be still less incli- 
ned to ridicule, the conjecture that in the recesses of our nature, and un- 
developed, there might exist an inner sense, (and therefore appertaining 
wholly to Time,) — a sense hitherto ' without a name,' which as an higher 
Third combined and potentially included both the former. Thus gravita- 
tion combines and includes the powers of attraction and repulsion, which 
are the constituents of matter, as distinguished fi-om hodif. And thus, not 
as a compound, but as a higher Third, it realizes matter (of itself ens 
fluxionale et prsefluum) and constitutes it body. Now suppose, that this 
nameless inner sense stood to the relations of Time as the power of gra- 
vitation to those of Space ? A priori, a presence to the Future is not more 
mysterious or transcendent, than a presence to the Distant : than a power 
equally immediate to the most remote objects, as it is to the central mass 
of its own body, toward which it seems, as it were, enchanting them : "for 
instance, the gi-avity in the sun and moon to the spring tides of our ocean. 
The true reply to such an hypothesis would be, that as there is nothing to 
be said against its possibility, there is, likewise, nothing to be urged for its 
reality ; and tliat the facts may be rationally explained without it. 



APPENDIX. 381 

It has been asked, why knowing myself to bo the object of pciKonal 
slander, (slander as unprovoked as it is groundless, unless acts of kindness 
arc provocation) I furnish this material for it, by pleading in palliation of 
BO chimerical a fancy. With that half-playful sadness, which at once sighs 
and smiles, I answered : why not for that very reason ? — viz. in order that 
my calunmiator might have, if not a material, yet some basis for the poi- 
son-gas of his invention to combine with ? — But no, — ^pure 'falsehood is 
often for the time the most effective ; for how can a man confute what he 
can only contradict ? — Our opinions and principles cannot prove an alibi. 
Think only what your feehngs would be if you heard a wretch deliberate- 
ly perjure himself in support of an infamous accusation, so remote from 
all fact, so smootli and homogeneous in its untruth, such a round robin of 
mere lies, that you knew not which to begin witli ? — What could you do, 
but look round with horror and astonishment, pleading silently to human 
nature itself, — and perhaps (as hath really been the case with me) forget 
both the slanderer and his slander in the anguish inflicted by the passive- 
ness of your many professed friends, whose characters you had ever been 
as eager to clear from the least stain of reproach as if a coal of fire had 
been on your own skin ? — But enough of this which would not have oc- 
curred to me at all, at this time, had it not been thus suggested. 

The feeling, that in point of fact chiefly influenced me in the preceding 
half apology for the supposition of a divining power in the human mind, 
arose out of the conviction, that an age, or nation, may become free from 
certain prejudices, beliefs, and superstitious practices in two ways. It may 
have really risen above them ; or it may have fallen below them, and be- 
come too bad for their continuance. " The rustic would have little reason 
to thank the philosopher, who should give him true conceptions of ghosts, 
omens, dreams, and presentiments at the price of abandoning his faitli in 
Providence and in the continued existence of his fellow-creatures after 
their death. The teeth of the old serpent sowed by the Cadmuses of 
French hterature under Lewis xv. produced a plenteous crop of such phi- 
losophers and truth-trumpeters in the reign of his ill-fated successor. 
They taught many facts, historical, political, physiological, and ecclesias- 
tical, diffusing their notions so widely that the very ladies and hair-dres- 
sers of Paris became fluent encyclopaedists ; and the sole })rice, which 
their scholars paid for these treasures of new light, was to behove Christi- 
anity an imposture, the Scriptures a forgery, the worship of God super- 
stition, hell a fable, heaven a dream, our life without Providence, and our 
death without hope. What can be conceived more natural than the re- 
sult : that self-acknowledged beasts should first act, and next suffer them- 
selves to be treated, as beasts ?" (Friend, p. 41.) 

Thank heaven .'—notwithstanding the attempts of Mr. Thomas Payne 
and his compeers, it is not so bad with us. Oi)en infidelity has ceased to 
be a means even of gratifying vanity : for the leaders of the gang them- 



383 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

solves turned apostates to Satan, as soon as tlie number of their Proselytes 
became so large, that Atheism ceased to give distinction. Nay, it became 
a mark of original thinking to defend the Belief and the Ten Command- 
ments : so the strong minds veered round, and religion came again into 
fashion. But still I exceedingly doubt, whether the superannuation of sun- 
dry superstitious fancies be the result of any real diffusion of sound think- 
in*' hi the nation at large. For instance, there is now no call for a Picus 
Mirandula to write seven books against Astrology. It might seem indeed, 
that a single fact like that of the loss of Kempenfelt and his crew, or the 
explosion of the L'Orient, would prove to the common sense of the most 
ignorant, that even if Astrology could be true, the Astrologers must be 
false ; for if such a science were possible it could be a science only for 
gods. Yet Erasmus, the prince of sound common sense, is known to have 
disapproved of his friend's hardihood, and did not himself venture beyond 
scepticism : and the immortal Newton, to whom, more than to any other 
human being, Europe owes the purification of its general notions concem- 
in«y the heavenly bodies, studied Astrology Avith much earnestness and did 
not reject it till he had demonstrated the falsehood of all its pretended 
grounds and principles. The exit of two or three superstitions is no more 
a proof of the entry of good sense, than the strangling of a Despot at Al- 
giers or Constantinople is a symptom of freedom. If therefore not the 
mere disbelief, but the grounds of such disbelief, must decide the question 
of our superior illumination, I confess that I could not from my o\vn ob- 
servations on the books and conversation of tlie age vote for the afhrma- 
tive without much hesitation. As many errors are despised by men from 
ignorance as from knowledge. Whether that be not the case with regard 
to divination, is a query that rises in my mind (notwithstanding my fullest 
conviction of the non-existence of such a power) as often as I read the 
names of the great statesmen and philosophei-s, which Cicero enumerates 
in the introductoiy paragraphs of his work de Divinatione. Socrates, 
omnesque Socratici, plurimisque locis gravis Auctor Democritus, Cratip- 
pusque, familiaris noster, quern ego parem summis Peripateticis judico, &c. 
&c. prsesensionem rerum futurarum comprobarunt. Of all the theistic 
philosophers, Xenophanes was the only one who wholly rejected it *A 
Stoicis degenerat Panaetius, nee tamen ausus est negare, vim esse divinan- 
di, sed dubitare se dixit.' Nor was this a mere outward assent to the 
opinions of the state. Many of them subjected the question to the most 
exquisite arguments, and supported the affirmative not merely by experi- 
ence, but (especially the Stoics, who of all sects most cultivated psychol- 
ogy) by a minute analysis of human nature and its facidties : while on the 
mind of Cicero himself (as on that of Plato with regard to a state of ret- 
ribution after death) the universality of the faith in all times and countries 
appears to have made the deepest impression. ' Gentem quidem nullam 
video, ne(|uc tarn hiunanam atque doctam, neque tarn inmiaiiem ttun- 



APPENDIX. 383 

que baibaram, qute non significari futiira, et a quibusdam intclligi pnedici- 
que posse censeat.' 

I fear, that tlie decrease in our feelings of reverence towards mankind 
at large, and oui- increasing aversion to every opinion not grounded in 
some appeal to the senses, have a larger share in this our emancipation 
from the prejudices of Socrates and Cicero, than reflection, insight, or a 
fair collation of the facts and arguments. For myself, I would far rather 
see tlie Enghsh people at large believe somewhat too much than merely 
just enough, if the latter is to be produced, or must be accompanied, by a 
contempt or neglect of the faith and intellect of their forefathers. For 
not to say what yet is most certain, that a people cannot believe jW enough, 
and that there are errors which no wise man will treat with rudeness, 
while tiiere is a probability that they may be the refraction of some great 
truth as yet below the horizon ; it remains most worthy of our serious con- 
sideration, whetlier a fancied superiority to their ancestors' intellects must 
not be speedily followed in the popular mind by disrespect for their an- 
cestoi-s' institutions. Assuredly it is not easy to place any confidence in a 
form of church or state, of whose founders we have been taught to be- 
lieve, that their philosophy was jargon, and their feelmgs and notions rank 
superstition. Yet are we never to grow wiser ? — Are we to be credulous 
by birth-right, and take ghosts, omens, visions, and witchcraft, as an heir- 
loom ? — God forbid ! — ^A distinction must be made, and such a one as shall 
be equally avaihng and profitable to meii of all ranks. Is this practicable ? 
Yes ! — it exists. It is found in the study of the Old and New Testament, if 
only it be combined with a spiritual partaking of the Redeemer's Blood, of 
Avhich, mysterious as the symbol may be, the sacramental Wine is no mere, 
or arbitraiy, memento. This is the only certain, and this is the universal, 
preventive of all debasing superstitions ; this is the true H^mojvy, [ai^ax, 
blood: oivog, wine) which our Milton has beautifully allegorized in a pas- 
sage strangely overlooked by all his commentators. Bear in mind, Read- 
er ! the character of a militant christian, and the results (in this hfe and in 
the next) of the Redemption by the Blood of Christ : and so peruse the 
passage ! 

Amongst the rest a small luisightly root, 

But of divine eflfect, he culled me out : 

The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it, 

But in another country, as he said. 

Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil ! 

Unknown and like esteem'd, and the dull swain 

Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon ; 

And yet more med'cinal is it than that moly 

That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave. 

He called it H^mo>'y and gave it me. 

And bad me keep it as of sovr'an use 



384 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

'Gainst all InchantnieRts, mildew, blast or damp, 

Or ghastly furies' apparition. Milton's Comus. 

These lines might be employed as an amulet against delusions : for the 
man, who is indeed a christian, will as little think of informing himself 
concerning the future by dreams or presentiments, as of looking for a dist- 
ant object at broad noon-day with a hghted taper in his hand. 

But whatever of good and intellectual Nature worketh in us, it is our 
appointed task to render gradually our own work. For all things that sur- 
round us, and all things that happen unto us, have (each doubtless its own 
providential purpose, but) all one common final cause : namely, the in- 
crease of Consciousness, in such wise, that whatever part of the terra in- 
cognita of our nature the increased consciousness discovers, our will may 
conquer and biing into subjection to itself under the sovereignty of rea- 
son. 

The leading differences between mechanic and vital philosophy may all 
be drawn from one point : namely, that the former demanding for every 
mode and act of existence real or possible visibiliti/, knows only of dis- 
tance and nearness, composition (or rather juxta position) and decomposi- 
tion, in short the relations of unproductive particles to each other ; so that 
in every instance the result is the exact sum of the component quantities, 
as in arithmetical addition. This is the philosophy of death, and only of 
a dead nature can it hold good. In life, much more in spirit, and in a liv- 
ing and spiritual i)hilosophy, the two component counter-powei*s actually 
interpenetrate each other, and generate a higher third, including both the 
former, ita tamen ut sit alia et major. 

To apply this to the subject of this i)resent Essay. The elements (the 
factors, as it were) of Religion are Reason and Understanding. If the 
composition stopped in itself, an understanding tlius rationalized would 
lead to the admission of the general doctrines of natural religion, the be- 
lief of a God, and of immortality ; and probably to an acquiescence in 
the history and ethics of the Gospel. But still it would be a speculative 
faith, and in the nature of a Theory; as if the main object of religion 
were to solve difficulties for the satisfaction of the intellect. Now this stato 
of mind, which alas ! is the state of too many among our self-entitled ra- 
tional religionists, is a mere balance or compromise of the two powers, not 
that living and generative interpenetration of both which would give be- 
ing to essential Religion — to the RELiciorf, at the birth txf which 'we re- 
ceive the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father ; the Spirit 
itself beaiing witness with our spirit, that we are the children of G6d.' 
(Rom. viii. 15, 16.) In Religion there is no abstraction. To the unity 
and infinity of the Divine Nature, of which it is the partaker, it adds the 
fidlness, and to the fullness the grace and the creative overflowing. That 
which intuitively it at once beholds and adores, praying always, nnd re- 
joicing ahxays— that doth it tend to become. In all things and in each 



APPENDIX. 385 

thing — for the Ahnighty Goodness doth not create generalities or abide in 
abstractions — in each, the meanest, object it bears witness to a mystery 
of infinite sokition. Thus ' beholding as in a glass the glory of tlie Lord, 
it is changed into the same image from glory to glory.' (2 Cor. iii. 18.) 
For as it is bom and not made, so must it grow. As it is the image or 
symbol of its great object, by the organ of this similitude, as by an eye, it 
seeth that same image throughout the creation ; and from the same cause 
sympathizeth with all creation in its groans to be redeemed. 'For we 
know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in earnest expecta- 
tion', (Rom. viii. 20 — ^23,) of a renewal of its forfeited power, the power, 
namely, of retiring into that image, which is its substantial form and true 
life, from the vanity of Self, which then only is when for itself it hath 
ceased to be. Even so doth ReUgion finitely express the unity of the in- 
finite Spirit by being a total act of the soul. And even so doth it repre- 
sent his fullness by its depth, by its substantiality, and by an all-pervading 
vital warmth which — relaxing the rigid, consolidating the dissolute, and 
giving cohesion to that which is about to sink down and fall abroad, as 
into the dust and crumble of the Grave — is a life within life, evermore or- 
ganizing the soul anew. 

Nor doth it express the fullness only of the Spirit It likewise repre- 
sents his Overflowing by its communicativeness, budding and blossoming 
forth in all earnestness of persuasion, and in all words of sound doctrine : 
while, like the Citi'on in a genial soil and climate, it bears a golden fruit- 
age of good- works at the same time, the example waxiJig in contact with 
the exhortation, as the ripe orange beside the opening orange-flower. 
Yea, even his Creativeness doth it shadow out by its own powera of im- 
pregnation and production, ('being such a one as Paul the aged, and also a 
prisoner for Jesus Christ, who begat to a lively hope his son Onesimus in 
his bonds') regenerating in and through the Spirit the slaves of con-uption, 
and fugitives from a far greater master than Philemon. The love of God, 
and therefore God himself who is Love, Religion strives to 'express hy 
Love, and measures its growth by the increase and activity of its Love. 
For Christian Love is the last and divinest birth, the haiTnony, unity, and 
god-hke transfiguration of all the vital, intellectual, moral, and spiritual 
powers. Now it manifests itself as the sparkling and ebulhent spring of 
well-doing in gifts and in laboi-s ; and now as a silent fountain of patience 
and long-suflTering, the fullness of which no hatred or persecution caji ex- 
haust or diminish ; a more than conqueror in the persuasion, *that neither 
d^ath, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things pre- 
sent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, 
shall be able to separate it from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus 
the Lord.' (Rom. viii. 38-^9.) 

From God's Love through the Son, crucified for us from the beginnin/^ 
of the world, Rehgion begins : and in Love towards God and the crea- 

49 



386 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

tures of Gk)d it hath its end and completion. O how heaven-hke it is to 
sit among brethren at the feet of a minister who speaks under the influ- 
ence of Love, and is heard under the same influence ! For ail abiding and 
spiritual knowledge, infused into a grateful and affectionate fellow-chris- 
tian, is as the child of the mind that infuses it. The dehght which he 
gives he receives ; and in that bright and liberal hour the gladdened preach- 
er can scarce gather the ripe produce of to-day, without discovering and 
looking fonvard to the green fruits and embiyons, the heritage and rever- 
sionaiy wealth of the days to come ; till he bursts forth in prayer and 
thanksgiving — The hai-vest truly is plenteous, but the labourers few. O 
gracious Lord of the hai-vest, send forth labourers into thy harvest ! There 
is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. Thou, Lord over all, 
ait rich to all that call upon thee. But how shall they call on him in 
whom they have not believed ? and how shall tliey believe in him of whom 
they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ? and 
how shall they preach except they be sent ? And O ! how beautiful upon 
the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publish- 
eth peace, that bringeth glad tidings of good things, that publisheth salva- 
tion ; that saith unto the captive soul, Thy God reigneth ! God manifest- 
ed in tlie flesh hath redeemed thee ! O Lord of the hai-vest, send forth la- 
bourers into thy harvest ! 

Join with me. Reader ! in the fen^ent prayer, that we may seek within 
us, what we can never find elsewhere, that we juay find within us, what 
no words can put there, that one only true religion, which elevateth Know- 
ing into Being, which is at once the Science of Being, tlie Being and the 
Life of all genuine Science. 

[D.] 

In all ages of the Christian Church, and in the later period of the Jew- 
ish (that is, as soon as, from their acquaintance first with the Oriental and 
afterwai'ds with the Greek philosophy, the precursoiy and preparative in 
fluences of the Gospel began to work) there have existed individuals (La- 
odiceans m spirit, Minims in faith, and nominalists in philosophy) who 
mistake outlines for substance, and distinct images for clear conceptions ; 
with whom therefore not to be a thing is the same as )wt to be at all. The 
contempt, in which such persons hold the works and doctrines of all the- 
ologians before Grotius, and of all philosophers before Locke and Hartley 
(at least before Bacon and Hobbes) is not accidental, nor yet altogether ow- 
ing to that epidemic of a proud ignorance occasioned by a diffiised scio- 
lism, which gave a sickly and hectic shewiness to the latter half of the 
last century. It is a real instinct of self-defence acting offensively by an- 
ticipation. For the authority of all the greatest names of antiquity is full 
and decisive against them : and man, by the veiy nature of his birth and 
growth, is so much the creature of authority, that there was no way of 



APPENDIX. 



387 



effectually resisting it, but by undermining the reverence for the past in 
toto. Thug, the Jevvlsh Prophets have, forsooth, a ccrtaui degi-ee of anti- 
quaiian value, as being the only specimens extant of the oracles of a bar- 
barous tribe ; tlie Evangelists are to be interpreted with a due allowance for 
their superstitious prejudices concerning evil spirits, and St. Paul never 
suffers them to forget that he had been brought up at the feet of a Jewish 
Rabbi 1 The Greeks indeed were a fne people in works of taste ; but as 
to their jihilosophers ! the writings of Plato are smoke and flash from the 
witch's cauldron of a disturbed imagmation '.—Aristotle s works a quickset 
hedge of fruitless and thorny distinctions! and all the Philosophers before 
Plato and Aristotle fablers and allegorizei-s ! 

But these men have had their day : and there are signs ^f the times 
clearly announcing that that day is verging to its close. Even now there are 
not a few, on whose convictions it will not be uninfluencive to know, that 
the power, by which men are led to tlie truth of things, instead of the ap- 
pearances, was deemed and entitled the living and substantial Word of 
God by the soundest of the Hebrew Doctors ; that the eldest and most 
profound of the Greek philosophei"S demanded assent to their doctrine, 
mainly as oocpia QeonupaSorog, i, e. a traditionary wisdom that had its orig-jn 
in mspiration ; that tliese men referred the same power to the Tivp isitoiuv 
v/ioStoiy.omTog JoroY', and that they were scarcely less express than their 
scholai- Philo Judaeus, in their affirmations of the Logos, as no mere at- 
tribute or quality, no mode of abstraction, no personification, but literally 
and mysteriously deus alter et idem. 

When education has disciplined the minds of our gentry for austerer 
study ; when educated men will be ashamed to look abroad for truths that 
can be only found within ; within themselves they will discover, intuitively 
will they discover, the distinctions between " the light that hghteth every 
man that cometh into the world" and the understanding, whicli forms the 
pecvlium of each man, as different in extent and value from another man's 
understanding, as his estate may be from his neighbour's estate. The 
words of St. Jolin, from the 7th to the 12th verse of his first chapter, are 
in their whole extent mtei-pretable of the Understanding, which derives 
its rank and mode of being in the human race (tbat is, as far as it may be 
contrasted with the instinct of the dog or elephant, in all, which constitutes 
it hwnan understanding) from the universal Light. This Light therefore 
comes as to its own. Being rejected, it leaves the undei*standing to a world 
of dreams and darkness: for in it alone is life and the life is the light of 
MEN. What then but apparitioTis can remain to a Philosophy, which strikes 
death through all things visible and invisible ; satisfies itself then only 
when it can explain those abstractions of the outward senses, which by an 
• unconscious irony it names indifferently facts and pba^nomena, mechanic- 
ally — that is, by the laws of Death ; aud brands widi the name of Mysti- 
cism every solution grounded hi Life, or the })owers and intuitions of 
Life ? 



388 AID» TO REFLECTION. 

On the other hand, if the light be received by faith, to such understand- 
ings it delegates the privilege to become Sons of God {Hovaiur)^ expanding 
while it elevates, even as the beams of the sun incorporate with the mist, 
and make its natural darkness and earthly nature the bearer and interpreter 
of their own glory. 'J^ar nn inqtva^xi, ov ntj cvir,T£. 

The very same truth is found in a fragment of the Ephesian Heraclitus, 
preserved by Stoba^us, and in somewhat difterent words by Diogenes La- 

ertius. ^w row Xsyorrag la;(vpi^iadai /pjj to) ^vrv) navTwv tpsifuvrui yao Tcavng 
hi avdpwnivoi root vno hog rov &tiov {Joyov) y.Qursi yuo rooovrov Ixoaov t^t?.st, xai 

i^uQXii Tiaai y.ai TiepiytvtTai' TRANSLATION : — To discourse rationally )=ifwe 
would render the discursive understanding " discourse of reason") it be- 
lieves us to derive strength from that which is common to all men : (=rthe 
light that lighteth every man.) For all human understandings ai-e nour- 
ished by the one Divine Word, whose power is commensurate with his 
will, and is sufficient for all and ovei-floweth (=shineth in darkness, and is 
not contained therem, or comprehended by darkness.) 

This was Ilerachtus, whose book is nearly six hundred years older than 
tlie Gospel of St. John, and who was proverbially entitled the Dark [6 
GxoTetiog-) But it was a darkness which Socrates would not condemn, and 
which would probably appear to enlightened Christians the darkness of 
prophecy, had the work, which he hid in the temple, been preserved to 
us. But obscurity is a word of many meanings. It may be in the sub- 
ject ; it may be in the author ; or it may be in the reader ; — and this again 
may originate in the state of the reader's heart ; or in that of his capaci- 
ty : or in his temper ; or in his accidental associations. Two kinds are es- 
pecially pointed out by the divine Plato in his Sophistes. The Beauty of 
the Original is beyond my reach. On my anxiety to give the fulness of the 
Thought, I must ground my excuse for construing rather than translating. 
The fidehty of the version may well atone for its harshness in a passage 
that deserve* a meditation beyond the ministry of words, even the words 
of Plato himself, though in them, or nowhere, are to be heard the sweet 
sounds, that issued from the Head of Memnon at the Touch of Light. 
"One thing is the Hardness-to-he-undcrstood of the Sopliist, another that of 
the Philosopher. The former retreating into the obscurity of that which 
hath not true Being, {rov /*)? dvroc) and by long intercourse accustomed to 
the same, is hard to be known en account of the duskiness of the place. 
But the philosopher by contemplation of pure reason evermore approxi- 
mating to the idea of true Being (rov oitog) is by no means easy to be 
seen on account of the splendor of that region. For the intellectual eyes 
of the Many flit, and ai*e incapable of looking fixedly toward the God- 
like." 

There are, I am aware, persona who willingly admit, that not in articles 
of Faith alone, but in the heights of Geometry, and even in the necessary 
first principles of Natural Philosophy, ihere exist truths of apodictic force 



APPENDIX. ^' "^ 3S9 

ill Redsorif which the uieie Understanding strives in rain to conij)rehcnd. 
Take, as an instance, the ascending series of Infinites in every Finite, a 
position wliicii involves a contradiction for the Undei-standing, yet follows 
demonstrably from the very definition of Body, as that which fills a space. 
For wherever there is a space filled, there must be an extension to be di- 
vided. When therefore Maxims generalized from .appearances (Phaenom- 
ena) are applied to Substances ; when Rules, abstracted or deduced fi-om 
the Forms in Time and Space, are used as measures of Spiritual Being, 
yea even of the Divine Nature which cannot be compai-ed or classed : 
(" For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways, 
saith the Lord." Isaiah Iv. 8.) such Professors cannot but i)rotest against 
the whole Process, as grounded on a gross Metathesis iig aUo yerog. Yet 
still they ai'e disposed to tolerate it as a sort of sanative counter-excite- 
ment, that holds in check the more dangerous disease of Methodism. But 
I more than doubt of both the positions. I do not think Methodism, Cal- 
vinistic or Wesleyan, the more dangerous disease ; and even if it were, I 
should deny that it is at all likely to be counteracted by the rational Chris- 
tianity of our modern Alogi {loyog m^i w? a?.oYog !) who, mistaking Unity for 
Sameness, have been pleased by a misnomer, not less contradictory to their 
own tenets than intolerant to those of Christians in general, to entitle them- 
selves Unitarians. The two contagions attack each a wholly different 
class of minds and tempers, and each tends to produce and justify the 
other, according as the predisposition, of the patient may chance to be. If 
Fanatacism be as a fire in the flooring of the church, the Idolism of the 
unspiritualized Understanding is the dry rot in its beams and timbers. 

l''(iptv xQflO^srrveir ita?.?.ur tj nv(}y.air,v : sayS HeraclitUS. It is not the sect of 

Unitarian Dissenters, but the spirit of Unitarianism in the members of the 
Established Church that alarms vie. To what open revilings, and to what 
whispered slanders, I subject my name, by this public avowal, I well know : 

antgovg ya^ nvug nvai iTiigvtpcjv HQux).iirog (pjjoiv, axovaai bvx inigaiLttov; ovd' 
tiJieiv a?.Xa xai, xvveg wg, ^txvLovotv br av ^m ytvucxtooi. 

The term. Idea, is an instance in point : and I hazard this assertion, to- 
gether with the preceding sentences, in the full consciousness, that they 
must be unintelligible to those who have yet to learn, that an Idea is equi- 
distant in its signification from Sensation, Image, Fact, and Notion : that 
it is the antithesis, not the synonyme, of fid^Xor. The magnificent son of 
Cosmo was wont to discourse with Ficino, Politian, and the princely Mi- 
randula on the Ideas of Will, God, and Immortality. The accomplished 
author of the Arcadia, the star of screnest brilliance in the glorious con- 
stellation of Elizabeth's court, our England's Sir Philip Sydney ! He, the 
pai'amount gentleman of Europe, the poet, warrior, and statesman, held 
liigh converse witli Spenser on the Idea of Supei-sensual beauty ; on all 



390 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

eartlily, fair, and amiable," as the Symbol of that Idea ; and on Music and 
Poeey as its living Educts ! With the same genial reverence did the young- 
er Algernon commune with Harrington and Milton on the Idea of a perfect 
state ; and in what sense it is true, that the men (i. e. the aggregate of the 
inhabitants of a country at any one time) are made for the state, not the 
state for the men. But these lights shine no longer, or for a few. Exeunt : 
and enter in their stead Holofenies and Costard ! masked as Metaphysics 
and Common-sense. And tliese too have their Ideas ! The former has 
an Idea, that Hume, Hartley, and Condillac have exploded all Ideas, but 
those of sensation ; he has an Idea that he was particularly pleased with 
the fine Idea of the last-named Philosopher, that there is no absurdity in 
asking. What color Virtue is ofi inasmuch as the i)roper philosophic an- 
swer would be black, blue, or bottle-green, according as the coat, waist- 
coat and small-clothes might chance to be of the person, the series of 
whose motions had excited the sensations, which fonned our Idea of vir- 
tue. The latter has no Idea of a better-flavored haunch of venison than 
he dined off at the Albion, he admits that the French have an excellent 
Idjea of cooking in general, but holds that their best cooks have no more 
Idea of dressing a turtle than the gourmands themselves, at Paris, have of 
the true taste and color of the fat ! 

It is not impossible that a portion of the high value attached of late 
years to the Dates and Margins of our old Folios and Quartos, may be 
transferred to their Contents. Even now there exists a shrewd suspicion 
in the minds of reading men, that not only Plato and Aristotle, but even 
Scotus Erigena, and the schoolmen from Peter Lombard to Duns Scotus, 
are not such mere blockheads, as they pass for with those who have never 
peniscd a line of their writings. What the results may be, should this ri- 
pen into conviction, I can but guess. But all History seems to favor the 
persuasion, I entertain, that in every age the speculative Philosophy in 
general acceptance, the metaphysical opinions that happen to be predom- 
inant, will influence the Theology of that age. Whatever is proposed for 
the Belief, as true, must have been previously admitted by Reason as pos- 
sible, as involving no contradiction to the universal forms (or laws) of 
Thought, no incompatibility m the terms of the proj^osition ; and the de- 
termination on this head belongs exclusively to the science of Metapliys- 
ics. In each article of Faith embraced on conviction, the mind deter- 
mines, first intuitively on its logical possibility ; secondly, discursively, on its 
analogy to doctrines already believed, as well as on its correspondencies to 
the wants and faculties of our nature , and thirdly, historically, on the di- 
rect and indirect evidences. But the probability of an event is a part of 
its historic evidence, and constitutes its presumptive proof, or the evidence 
a piiori. Now as the evidence a posteriori, requisite in order to a satis- 
factory proof of the actual occurrence of any Fact, stands in an inverse 
ratio to the strength or weakness of the evidence a priori (that is, a fact 



APPENDIX. 391 

probable in itself may be believed on slight testimony) it is manifest tliat 
of the three Factors, by which the mind is determined to the admission 
or rejection of the point in question, the last must be greatly influen<?e(l 
by the second, and that both depend on the first, not indeed as their 
cause or preconstitnent, but as their indispensable condition ; so that the 
very inquiry concerning them is preposterous (nz'^or/xfT/tta xuv yga^ov llQortQov) 
as long as the first remains undetermined. Again : the history of human 
opinions (ecclesiastical and philosophical history) confirms by manifold in- 
stances, w^hat attentive consideration of the position itself might have au- 
thorized us to presume, namely, that on all such subjects as are out of the 
sphere of the senses, and therefore incapable of a direct proof from out- 
vv^ard experience, the question vi^hether any given position is logically im- 
possible (incompatible with Reason) or only incomprehensible (i. e. not re- 
ducible to the forms of Sense, namely, Time and Space, or those of the 
Understanding, namely Quantity, Quality, and Relation — ) in other words, 
the question, whether an assertion be in itself inconceivable, or only by us 
unimaginable, will be decided by each individual according to the positions 
assumed as first principles in the metaphysical system which he had pre- 
viously adopted. Thus the existence of a Supreme Reason, the Creator 
of the material Universe, involved a conti'adiction for a disciple of Epicu- 
rus, who had convinced himself that causative thought was tantamount to 
something out of nothing or substance out of shadow, and incompatible 
with the axiom Nihil ex nihilo : While on the contrary, to a Platonist the 
position is necessarily presupposed in every other truth, as that without 
which every fact of experience would uivolve a contradiction in Reason. 
Now it is not denied that the Framers of our Church Liturgy, Homilies 
and Articles, entertained metaphysical opinions irreconcileable in their first 
principles with the system of speculative philosophy which has been 
taught in this country, and only not universally received, since the asser- 
ted and generally believed defeat of the Bishop of Worcester (the excel- 
lent Stillingfleet) in his famous controversy with Mr. Locke. Assuredly 
therefore it is well worth the consideration of our Established Clergy 
whether it is at all probable in itself, or congruous with experience, that 
the disputed Articles of our Church de revelatis et credendis should be adopt- 
ed with singleness of heart, and in the light of knowledge, when the 
grounds and Jirst philosophTj, on which the Framers themselves rested the 
antecedent credibility (may we not add even the revelahUitij ?) of the Arti- 
cles in question, have been exchanged for principles the most dissimilar, 
if not contrary ? It maybe said and truly, that the Scriptures, and not 
meta])hysical systems, are our best and ultimate authority. And doubtless, 
on Revelation must we rely for the tndh of the Doctrines. Yet what is 
held incapable of being conceived as possible, will be deemed incapable 
of having been revealed as real : and that philosophy has Ijithcrto had a 
negative voice, as to the interpretation of the Scriptures in high and doc- 



392 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

trjnal points, Is proved by the course of argument adopted in the contro- 
versial vohunes of all the orthodox Divines from Origen to Bishop Bull 
as vrell as by the very different sense attached to the same texts by the dis- 
ciples of the modem Metaphysique, wherever they have been at liber- 
ty to form their own creeds according to their own exposition. 

I repeat the question then : is it hkely, that the faith of our ancestors 
will be retained when their philosophy is rejected? rejected a priori, as 
baseless notions not worth inquiring into, as obsolete en-ors which it would 
be " slaying the slairV^ to confute ? Should the answer be in the negative, 
it would be no strained inference that the Clergy at least, as the Conserva- 
tor of the national Faith, and the accredited Representatives of Learn- 
ing in general amongst us, might, with great advantage to their own peace 
of mind, qualify themselves to judge for themselves concerning the com- 
parative worth and solidity of the two schemes. Let them make the ex- 
periment, whether a patient re-hearing of their predecessora' cause, with 
enough of predilection for the men to counterpoise the prejudices against 
their system, might not induce them to move for a new trial — a result of 
no mean importance in my opinion, were it on this account alone, that 
it would recall certain ex-dignitaries in the Book-repuhlic from their long 
exile on the shelves of our public libraries to their old familiar station on 
the reading desks of our theological students. However strong the pre- 
sumption were in favor of principles authorized bynames tliatmust needs 
be so dear and venerable to a Minister of the Church of England, as those 
of Hooker, Whitaker, Field, Donne, Selden, Stillingfleet, (mascu- 
line intellects, fomied under the robust disciphne of an age memorable 
for keenness of research, and u'on industiy !) yet no undue preponderance 
from any previous weight in this scale will be apprehended by minds ca- 
pa1)le of estimating the counter- weights, which it must first bring to a bal- 
ance in the scale opposite!! The obstinacy of opinions that have always 
been taken for granted ! opinions unassailable even by the remembrance of 
a doubt ! the silent accrescence of belief from the unwatched deposi- 
tions of a general, never-contradicted, hearsay, the concurring suffrage of 
modern books, all pre-supposing or re-asserting the same principles with 
the same confidence, and with the same contempt for all prior systems ! — 
and among these, Works of highest authority, appealed to in our Legisla- 
tures, and lectured on at our Universities ; the very books, perhaps, that 
called forth our own first effoi-ts in thinking ! the solutions and confutations 
in which must therefore have appeared tenfold more satisfactory from 
their having given us our first information of the difficulties to be solved, 
of the opinions to be confuted ! — Verily, a Clergyman's partiality towards 
the tenets of his forefathers must be intense beyond all precedent, if it 
can more than sustain itself against antagonists so strong in tliemselves, 
and with such mighty adjuncts ! 

Nor in this enumerntion dare I '^though fully aware of the obloquy to 



APPENDIX. 393 

which I am exposing myself) omit the noticeable fact, that we have attach- 
ed a portion even of our national gloiy (not only to the system itself, that 
system of disgiiised and decorous epicureanism, which has been the only 
ortPiodox philosophy of the last hundred yeai-s ; but also, and more emphat- 
ically,) to the name of the assumed father of the system, who raised it to 
its present "pride of place," and almost universal acceptance throughout 
Europe. And how was this effected ? Extrinsically, by all the causes, 
consequences, and accompaniments of the Revolution in 1688 : by all the 
opinions, interests, and passions, which, counteracted by the sturdy prejudi- 
ces of the mal-contents with the Revolution ; qualified by the compromi- 
sing character of its chief conductors ; not more propelled by the spirit of 
enterprise and hazard in our commercial towns, than held in check by 
the characteristic vis inertije of the peasantiy and landholders ; both par- 
ties cooled and lessoned by the equal failure of the destruction, and of the 
restoration, of monarchy ; it was effected extrinsical ly, I say, by the same 
influences, which, {not in and of themselves, but with all these and sundry 
other modifications) combined, under an especial controul of Providence, 
to perfect and secure the majestic Temple of the British Constitution ! — 
But the very same which in France, toitfvout this providential counterpoise, 
overthrew the motley fabric of feudal oppression to build up in its stead 
the madhouse of jacobinism ! Intrinsically, and as far as the pliilosophic 
scheme itself is alone concerned, it was effected by the mixed policy and 
bonhomie, with which the author contrived to retain in his celebrated 
work whatever the system possesses of soothing for the indolence, and of 
flattering for the vanity, of men's average understandings ; while he kept 
out of sight all its darker features, that outraged the instinctive faith and 
moral feelings of mankind, ingeniously threading-on the dried and shriv- 
elled, yet still wholesome and nutritious, fruits, plucked firom the rich grafts 
of ancient wisdom, to the barren and worse than baiTen fig tree of the 
mechanic philosophy. Thus, the sensible Christians, " the angels of the 
church of Laodicea," with the numerous and mighty sect of their admi- 
rers, delighted with the discovery that they could purchase the decencies 
and the creditableness of religion at so small an expenditure of faith, ex- 
tolled the work for its pious conclusions : while the Infidels, wiser in their 
generation than the children (at least tlian these nominal children) of light, 
eulogized it with no less zeal for the sake of its principles and assump- 
tions, and with the foresight of those obvious and only legitimate conclu- 
sions, that might and would be deduced from them. Great at all times 
and almost incalculable are the influences of paity spirit in exaggerating 
contemporary reputation ; but never perhaps " from the first syllable of 
recorded time" were they exerted under such a concurrence and conjunc- 
tion of fortunate accidents, of helping and furthering events and circum- 
stances, as in the instance of Mr. Locke. 
I am most fully pej-suaded, that tlie principles both of taste, morals, and 

50 



394 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

religion taught in our most populai* compendia of moral and political phi- 
losophy, natural theology, evidences of Chiistianity, &c. are false, injuri- 
ous, and debasing. But I am likewise not less deeply convinced, that all 
the well-meant attacks on the writings of modern infidels and heretics, in 
support either of the miracles or of tlie mysteries of the Christian ReU- 
gion, can be of no permanent utility, while the authors themselves join in 
the vulgar appeal to common sense as the one infallible judge in matters, 
which become subjects of philosophy only, because they involve a contra- 
diction between this common sense and our morcd instincts, and require 
therefore an arbiter, which containing both (emmen/er) must be higher than 
either. We but mow down the rank misgrov^1;h instead of cleansing the 
soil, as long as we oiu'selves protect and manure^ as the pride of our gar- 
den, a tree of false knowledge, which looks fair and shew^ and variega- 
ted with fruits not its oavii, tlxat hang from the branches which have at 
various times been ingrafted on its stem ; but from the roots of which un- 
der ground the runners are sent off, that shoot up at a distance and bring 
forth the true and natural crop. — I will speak plainly, though in so doing 
I must bid defiance to all the flatterers of the folly and foolish self-opin- 
ion of the half-mstructed many. The articles of our Church, and the true 
principles of government and social order, will never be effectually and con- 
sistently maintained against their antagonists till the champions have them- 
selves ceased to worship the same Baal with their enemies, till they have 
cast out the common Idol.from the recesses of their own convictions, and 
with it the whole sei-vice and ceremonial of Idolism. While all parties 
agree in their abjuration of Plato and Aristotle, and in their contemptuous 
neglect of the schoolmen and the scholastic logic, without wliich the excel- 
lent Selden (that genuine English Mind, whose erudition, broad, deep, and 
manifold as it was, is yet less remarkable than his robust, healthful common 
sense) affirms it (see his Table Talk) impossible for a Divine thoroughly to 
comprehend or reputably to defend the whole undiminished and unadulter- 
ated scheme of Catliolick faith : while all alike pre-assume, with Mr. Locke, 
that the Mind contains only the reliques of the Senses, and therefore pro- 
ceed with him to explain the substance fi-om the shadow, the voice from 
the echo : they can but detect, each tlie otihers mconsistencies. The cham- 
pion of orthodoxy will victoriously expose the bald and staring incongrui- 
ty of the Socinian scheme with the language of Scripture, and with the 
final causes of all revealed rehgion: the Socinian will retort on the ortho- 
dox the incongruity of a belief m mysteries %vith his own admissions con- 
cerning the origin, and nature of all tenable ideas, and as triumphantly ex- 
pose the pretences of believing in a form of words, to which the behever 
himself admits that he can attach no consistent meaning. Lastly, the god- 
less materiahst, as the only consistent, because the only consequent, rea- 
soner, will secretly laugh at both. If these sentiments should be just, the 
consequences are so important, that every well-educated man, who has 
given proofs that he has at least patiently studied the subject, deserves a 



APPENDIX. 395 

patient hearing. Had I not the authority of the greatest and noblest intel- 
lects for at least two thousand years on my side, yet from the vital interest 
of tiie opinions themselves, and their natural, unconstrained, and (as it 
were) spontaneous coalescence with the faith of the Cathohck church, 
(they being, moreover, the opinions of its most eminent fathers,) I might 
appeal to all orthodox Christians, whether they adliere to the faith only, or 
both to the faith and forms, of the estabhshed Church, in the words of my 
motto ; Ad istha^c quaeso vos, quahacunque primo videantur aspectu, ad- 
tendite, ut qui vobis forsan insanire videar, saltem quibus msaniam rationi- 
bus cognoscatis. 

There are still a few, however, young men of loftiest minds, and the 
very stuff out of which the sword and shield of truth and honor are to be 
made, who will notwithdiaw all confidence from the wiiter, altliough 

Tis tme, that passionate for ancient Tru&s 
And honoring with religious love the Great 
Of elder times, he hated to excess, 
M^'ith an unquiet and intolerant Sconi, 
The hollow Puppets of an hollow Age 
Ever idolatrous, and changing ever 
Its worthless Idols! 

a few there are, who will still less be indisposed to follow him in his mild- 
er mood, whenever their Friend, 

Piercing the long-neglected holy Cave, 
The haunt obscure of Old Philosophy, 
Shall bid with lifted Torch its starry walls 
Sparkle, as erst they sparkled to the flame 
Of od'rous lamps tended by saint and sage ! 

I have hinted, above, at the necessity of a Glossary, and I will conclude 
these supplementary remarks witli a nomenclature of the principal terms 
that occur in the dements of speculative philosophy, in their old and right- 
ful sense, according to my belief; at all events the sense in which I have 
myself employed them. The most general term (genus summun) belong- 
ing to the speculative intellect, as distinguished from acts of the will, is 
Representation, or (still better) Presentation. 

A conscious presentation, if it refers e:sclusively to the Subject^ as a 
modification of his own state of Being, is r=: Sensation. 

The same if it refers to an Object, is rr Perception. 

A Perception, immediate and individual, is zr an Intuition. 

The same, mediate, and by means of a character or mark common to 
several things, is z=: a Conception. 

A Conception, extrinsic and sensuous, is = a Fact, or a Cognition. 

The same, purely mental and abstracted from the forms of the Under- 
standing itself is zz: a Notion. 



396 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

A Notion may be realized, and becomes Cognition ; but that which is 
neither a Sensation or a Perception, that which is neither individual (i. e. 
a sensible Intuition) nor general (i. e. a conception) which neither refers to 
outward Facts nor yet is abstracted from the Forms of perception con- 
tained in the Undei-standing ; but which is an educt of the Imagination 
actuated by the pme Reason, to which there neither is or can be an ade- 
quate correspondent in t>ie world of Senses — this and this alone is =z an 
Idea. Whether Ider.s a;e regulative only, accordhig to Aristotle and 
Kant ; or likewise Constitutive, and one with the power and Life of 
Nature, according to Plato, euid Plotinus, {bv Aoycp twi; jjr, xai fj twij »jv to ywg 
xiav av&Qwnm',) is tlic highest problem of Philosophy, and not part of its noni- 
enclature. 



[The following additional definitions, extracted from his other works, 
may help to show that the author attaches distinct notions to the terms 
which he employs, and be otherwise of service to the reader. — Am. Ed.] 

"The word, /^«(% in its origmal sense, as used by Pindar, Aristophanes, 
and in the gospel of Matthew, represented the visual abstraction of a dis- 
tant object, when \v^e see the whole without distinguishing its paiis. Pla- 
to adopted it as a teclmical tenn, and as the antithesis to EnJwAa, or sensu- 
ous images ; the tranHie.Jt and perishable emblems, or mental words, of 
ideas. The ideas tliemfcelves he considered as mysterious powei-s, living, 
seminal, formative, and exempt from time. In this sense the word be- 
came the property of the Platonic school ; and it seldom occurs in Aristo- 
tle, without some such phrase annexed to it, as " according to Plato,',' or " as 
Plato says." Our Enghsh writers to the end of Charles Snd's reign, or 
somewhat later, employed it either in the original sense, or platonically, or 
in a sense neaily correspondent to our present use of the substantive. Ideal, 
always, however, opposing it, more or less, to image, whether of present 
or absent objects." 

" To express in one word all that appertains to perception, considered as 
passive, and merely recipient, I have adopted from our elder classics the 
word sensuous ; because sensual is not at present used except in a bad 
sense, or at least as a moral distinction, while sensitive and sensible would 
each convey a different meaning.' 

" But for smidry notes on Shakespeare, &c. which have fallen in my 
way, I should have deemed it unnecessaiy to observe, that discourse does 
not mean what we noio call discoursing ; but the discursion of the mind, 
the processes of generalization and subsumption, of deduction and conclu- 



APPENDIX. 397 

sion. Thus, philosophy has hitherto been discursive, while Geometry is 
cdwaySf and essentially, intuitive. 

** When two distinct meanings are confounded under one or more words, 
(and such must be the case, as sure as our knowledge is progressive, and 
of course, imperfect) erroneous consequences will be drawn, and what is 
true in one sense of the word, will be affirmed as true in toto. Men of 
research, startled by the consequences, seek in the things themselves 
(whether in or out of the mind) for a knowledge of the fact, and having 
discovered the difference, remove the equivocation either by the substi- 
tution of a new word, or by tlie appropriation of one of the two or more 
words, that had before been used promiscuously. When this distinction 
has been so naturaUzed and of such general currency that the language 
itself does, as it were, think for us, (like the sliding rule, which is the me- 
chanic's safe substitute for aritlimetical knowledge,) we then say, that it is 
evident to common sense. Common sense, therefore, differs in different 
ages. What was born and christeued in the schools, passes by degrees 
into the world at large, and becomes the property of the market and the 
tea-table. At least, I can discover no other meaning of the temi, common 
sense f if it is to convey any specific difference fi'om sense and judgment in 
genere, and where it is not used scholastically for the universal reason.''^ 

" Metaphysics are the science which determines what can, and what can 
not, be known of Being and the Laws of Being, a priori, (that is from 
those necessities of the mind or forms of thinking, which, though first 
revealed to us by experience, must yet have pre-existed in order to make 
experience itself possible.") 

"This phrase, a priori, is in common most grossly misunderstood, and 
an absurdity burthened on it, which it does not deserve ! By knowledge, a 
prioriy we do not mean, that we can know any thing previously to expe- 
rience, which would be a contradiction in terms ; but, that having once 
known it by occasion of experience, (i. e. something acting upon us from 
without,) we then know, that it must have pre-existed, or the experience 
itself would have been impossible. By experience only, I know that I 
have eyes ; but then my reason convinces me, that I must have had eyes 
in order to the experience." 

" The same principle, which in its application to the whole of our being 
becomes religion, considersd speculatively is the basis of metaphysical sci- 
encef,that, namely, which requires an evidence beyond that of sensible 
concretes, which latter the ancients generalized in the word, physica, and 
therefore (prefixing the preposition, Tneto, i. e. beyond or transcending) na- 
med the superior science, metaphysics. The Invisible was assumed as 
the supporter of the apparent, iu)v <patvofi(vi>u — as their substance, a term 
which, in any other interpretation, expresses only the striving of the im- 
aginative power under conditions that involve the necessity of its frustra- 
tion. If the Invisible be denied, or (wliich is equivalent) considered in- 



398 AIDS TO REFLECTION. 

visible from the defect of the senses and not in its own nature, the scien- 
ces even of observation and experiment lose their essential copula. The 
component parts can never be reduced into an harmonious whole, but 
must owe their systematic arrangement to accidents of an ever-shifting 
perspective. Much more then must this apply to the moral world dis- 
joined from religion. Instead of morality, we can at best have only a 
scheme of prudence, and this too a prudence fallible and short-sighted : 
for were it of such a kmd as to be bona fide coincident with morals in 
reference to the agent as well as to the outward action, its first act would 
be that of abjuring its own usurped primacy. By celestial observations 
alone can even terrestiial charts be constructed scientifically^ 

" I shall merely state [here] what my belief is, concerning the true evi- 
dences of Christianity. 1. Its consistency with right Reason, I consider 
as the outer Court of the Temple — ^the common area, within which it 
stands. 2. The miracles, with and through which the Religion was first 
revealed and attested, I regard as the steps, the vestibule, and the portal 
of the Temple. 3. The sense, the inward feeling, in the soul of each Be- 
liever of its exceeding desirableness — the experience that he needs some- 
thing, joined with the strong foretokening, that the Redemption and the 
Graces propounded to us in Christ, are what he needs ; — this I hold to be 
the true Foundation; of the spiritual Edifice. With the strong a priori 
probability that flows in from 1 and 3 on the correspondent historical evi- 
dence of 2, no man can refuse or neglect to make the experiment without 
guilt. But, 4, it is the experience derived from a practical conformity to 
the conditions of the Gospel— it is the opening Eye ; the dawning Light ; 
the terrors and the promises of spiritual Growtli ; the blessedness of loving 
God as God, the nascent sense of Sin hated as Sin, and of the incapabil- 
ity of attaining to either without Christ ; it is the sorrow that still rises up 
from beneath, and the consolation that meets it from above ; the bosom 
ti-eachcries of the Principal in the warfare, and the exceeding faithfulness 
and long-suffering of the uninterested Ally ; — in a word, it is the actual 
Trial of the Faith in Christ, with its accompaniments and results, that 
must form the arched Roof, and the Faith itself is the completing Key- 
stone. In order to an efficient belief in Christianity, a man must have 
been a Christian, and this is the seeming argumentum in circulo, incident 
to all spiritual Truths, to every subject not presentable under the forms of 
Time and Space, as long as we attempt to master by the reflex acts of the 
Understanding, what we can only know by the act of becoming. " Do the 
will of my Father, and ye shall know whether I am of God." These 
four evidences I believe to have been, and still to be, for the world, for 
the whole church, all necessary, all equally necessary ; but that at present 
and for the majority of Christians born in Christian countries, I beheve 
the third and the fourth evidences to be the most operative, not as super- 
seding, but as involving a glad undoubting faith in the two former. Cre- 



APPENDIX. 899 

didi, ideoque intellexi, appears to me the dictate equally of Philosophy 
and Religion, even as I believe Redemption to be the antecedent of Sanc- 
tification, and not its consequent. All spiritual predicates may be constru- 
ed indifferently m modes of Action, or as states of Being. Thus Holiness 
and Blessedness are the same idea, now seen in relation to act, and now to 
existence." 



ERRATA. 

P. 191, 1. ]8, for "135—136.'? read 132—134. 
P. 253, 1. 21, for "hypostatize," read hypostasize. 
Note 88, reference for p. "157," read 237. 



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